An overnight Israeli Defense Forces airstrike in a part of Lebanon that had not been subject to hostilities killed three journalists from Hezbollah-aligned news agencies as they slept in a press enclave, according to The Associated Press.
A group of guest houses rented by various media outlets covering the war was reduced to rubble, and cars marked “PRESS” were seen smashed, overturned and covered in debris. The IDF issued no warning ahead of the strike and said it was investigating, the AP reported.
The deceased included camera operator Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohammed Rida of Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, and Al-Manar TV camera operator Wissam Qassim. Both outlets are aligned with Hezbollah and Iran.
The strike drew condemnation from journalists and press advocacy groups, which accused Israel of directly targeting the temporary journalist outpost to keep the press out of southern Lebanon. Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary called the attack an “assassination.”
“The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ night break to betray them in their sleep, and during the past months they did not stop covering the news in the field and transmitting it to reveal its described crimes,” he wrote in a tranlated post on X. “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.”
The IDF did not immediately comment on the strike on its social media platforms.
Other journalists who survived the multiple-missile strike said it came at 3:30 a.m. as the journalists slept. Some were injured, including Hussein Hoteit, a cameraman for Egypt’s Al-Qahira TV, who said he was awakened by a crashing weight as his guest house collapsed; colleagues had to dig him out of the debris, the AP reported.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said earlier this month that at least 128 journalists and media workers – all but five Palestinian – had been killed in Gaza and Lebanon so far, the most journalists who have died in any year since it started tracking in 1992. Israeli forces were responsible for all but two.
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