Israeli Strike Kills Three Lebanese Journalists
BEIRUT, March 28 (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed three Lebanese journalists in an airstrike in southern Lebanon on Saturday. He stated that the Israeli army targeted one of them.
Lebanese television news channel Al Manar said its correspondent Ali Shaib and reporter Fatima Ftouni from Lebanese pan-Arab broadcaster Al Mayadeen were killed when their vehicle was hit.
Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcis later said that Ftouni’s brother Mohammed, a cameraman, was also killed.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it killed Shaib, whom it described as a “terrorist”, in a targeted attack, accusing him of being part of the Hezbollah intelligence unit and that he was reporting on the location of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon.
The statement, which also accused Shaib of “inciting” against Israeli soldiers and civilians, did not mention other journalists or provide evidence to support the claim that Shaib was a member of Hezbollah’s intelligence unit.
Hezbollah, which controls Al Manar, has denied that Shaib was part of one of its intelligence units.
“The enemy’s false claims are nothing more than an expression of his weakness and fragility and a desperate attempt to evade responsibility for this crime,” the statement said.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the journalists as “civilians fulfilling their professional duties.”
“This is a brazen crime that violates all agreements and norms that ensure that journalists enjoy international protection in war,” he said in a statement about X.
‘Risks to journalists are increasing’
Al Manar described Shaib as “an icon of resistance journalism”. Al Mayadeen, widely perceived to be editorially aligned with Hezbollah and Iran’s allies and supporters in the region, said Fatima Ftouni stood out for her courageous and objective reporting.
In response to the killings, Reporters Without Borders said it had been alarmed for weeks about the increasing risks facing media professionals.
The killings follow the death of Hussain Hamood, a Lebanese freelance journalist working for Al Manar who the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.
At least three more journalists were killed in Israeli or joint US-Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza. Iran war It started on Feb. 28, CPJ said Thursday. Neither the U.S. military nor the Israeli military immediately responded to a request for comment.
In October 2024, an Israeli attack hit a series of guesthouses housing only reporters in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya; Two journalists from Al Mayadeen and one journalist from Al Manar were killed, prompting global condemnation.
(Additional reporting by Jaidaa Taha, Maya Gebeily and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Joe Bavier and Timothy Heritage)
