An Israeli airstrike on Friday, October 25, has resulted in the deaths of at least three journalists while they were sleeping in their lodgings in southern Lebanon.
The victims have been identified as cameraman Ghassan Najjar, engineer Mohamed Reda, both of whom were employed by Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese satellite television (TV) channel and Wissam Qassim who was working as a camera operator for Al Manar, a TV station linked to Hezbollah.
Reports indicated that this strike was directly targeted an area that had no business with the ongoing conflict between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.
The attack occurred around 4 a.m local time 01:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Friday, October 25, striking a compound in Hasbaiyya, Lebanon, where several journalists were staying and it killed two cameramen and a technician.
Reporters on-site indicated that the bungalow where the men were resting was specifically targeted.
Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary described the attack as ‘a war crime.’
“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 on social media platform X.
The director of the Lebanese TV station, Ghassan bin Jiddo, said on via a post on X that, “Israel’s targeting of the journalist’s residence was deliberate and there are injured journalists from other Arab channels.
“We hold the occupation fully responsible for this war crime, in which journalist crews, including the Al Mayadeen team, were targeted.”
There was no immediate response from Israel.
The attack follows an Israeli strike a day earlier on an office of the Lebanese TV station in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, which resulted in one death and five injuries.
Two journalists from Al Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike in the month of November 2023.
The previous month, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon resulted in the death of Reuters videographer, Issam Abdallah and injured other journalists from AFP and Al Jazeera.
Journalists have encountered unprecedented risks while reporting on the conflicts in Gaza, Palestine and Lebanon.
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