An Israeli airstrike killed journalists covering the war in Lebanon as they slept

BEIRUT (AP) — An early morning Israeli airstrike killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon on Friday, one of the deadliest attacks on the media since hostilities broke out across the border a year ago.

It was a rare airstrike on an area that has been used by the media as a base for covering the war.

The 3 a.m. airstrike turned the site — a series of chalets nestled among trees that had been rented by various media outlets covering the war — into rubble. Cars marked “PRESS” were overturned and covered in dust and debris, and at least one satellite dish for live broadcasting was totally destroyed.

The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike, which it said targeted Hezbollah militant infrastructure. The military later said the strike was being reviewed.

Mohammad Farhat, a reporter for Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV in the south, said everyone rushed out in their sleeping clothes. “The first question we asked each other: ‘Are you alive?’”

Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida of the Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV, and camera operator Wissam Qassim, who worked for Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. Both outlets are aligned with Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran.

Earlier in the week, a strike hit an office belonging to Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The airstrike early Friday was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks against journalists covering the war in Gaza and Lebanon in the past year.

The Israeli military said it targeted a building from which Hezbollah militants conducted operations, adding that it believed the militants were inside when the airstrike hit.

“Several hours after the strike, reports were received that journalists had been hit during the strike,” it said.

Human rights groups say deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime.

“Journalists are civilians that are entitled to protection under international humanitarian law,” said Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. “It has been especially disturbing to see Israel target civilian institutions just because of their affiliation to Hezbollah.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was appalled by the killing of the three journalists and called for an independent investigation.

“CPJ is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time hitting a compound hosting 18 members of the press in south Lebanon,” said the organization’s program director, Carlos Martinez de la Serna.

TV crews had arrived in Hasbaya, and deemed it safer, after Israel had ordered an evacuation order for a town further south from which they were reporting.

“That is why we consider it a direct targeting, aimed at getting the journalists out of the south,” said Elsy Moufarrej, coordinator for the Alternative Press Syndicate in Lebanon. “They want to prevent the journalists from covering and having presence in the south of Lebanon.”

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said the journalists were killed while reporting on what he called Israel’s “crimes,” and noted they were among a large group of members of the media.

“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions,” he wrote in a post on X.

Struck in their sleep

Imran Khan, a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English who was among the journalists in the Hasbaya Village Club guesthouses, said the airstrike hit at around 3:30 a.m. without warning.

“These were just journalists that were sleeping in bed after long days of covering the conflict,” he posted on social media, adding that he and his team were unhurt.

Hussein Hoteit, a cameraman for Egypt’s Al-Qahira TV, said he was sleeping when he woke up to a “huge weight” as the walls and ceiling collapsed. He was saved by colleagues who managed to move the debris covering him a few minutes later. Their team’s house was closest to the one housing Al-Mayadeen.

He said two missiles hit the chalet next door, although he didn’t hear them. He spoke from his hospital bed where he is being treated for thigh injuries.

Three of the 18 journalists staying at the guesthouse, including an Egyptian national, were injured.

Yumna Fawaz, a journalist with the Lebanese MTV station, said she was woken up by the roof falling over her head. She suffered a minor injury.

“This targeting destroyed the whole compound. All the chalets were destroyed and the roofs fell over our heads,” Fawaz told The Associated Press. “This was the safe space. It had not been targeted before.”

An unprecedented toll

Friday’s deaths are the latest in a long list of journalists who have been killed in Israeli attacks in the past year in Gaza and Lebanon.

In a report earlier this month, CPJ said at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, had been killed in Gaza and Lebanon — more journalists than have died in any year since it started documenting journalist killings in 1992. All of the killings except two were carried out by Israeli forces, it said.

“One year in, Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has exacted an unprecedented and horrific toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape,” it said. CPJ said it has determined that at least five of the journalists, including one in Lebanon last year, were directly targeted by Israeli forces. The group is investigating other cases and unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt or threatened.

The killing of journalists has prompted an international outcry from press advocacy groups and United Nations experts, although Israel has said it does not deliberately target them.

Lebanon’s Health Minister says over the past year 11 journalists have been killed and eight wounded by Israeli fire in Lebanon.

In November 2023, two journalists for Al-Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike at their reporting spot. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and seriously wounded other journalists from France’s international news agency, Agence France-Presse, and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV on a hilltop not far from the Israeli border.

This week, Israel accused journalists working for Al Jazeera of being members of militant groups, citing documents it purportedly found in Gaza. The network has denied the claims as “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region.”

CPJ has dismissed them as well, and said that “Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”

Jad Shahrour, spokesperson for the Samir Kassir Eyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, said bombing press centers is a deliberate effort to obliterate the truth.

“It means they are establishing a media blackout,” he said, adding that it was a troubling trend that is now shifting from Gaza to Lebanon.

Al-Mayadeen’s director, Ghassan bin Jiddo, alleged that the Israeli strike Friday was intentional and directed at those covering elements of its military offensive.

Ali Shoeib, Al-Manar’s correspondent in south Lebanon, said the camera operator who had been working with him for months was killed in the attack.

“We were reporting the news and showing the suffering of the victims and now we are the news and the victims of Israel’s crimes,” Shoeib said in a video aired on Al-Manar TV.

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Karam reported from London. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed.

Sarah El Deeb And Zeina Karam, The Associated Press