An Israeli airstrike on a guesthouse for journalists in southern Lebanon kills 3

By SARAH EL DEEB and ZEINA KARAM

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon early Friday, a rare strike on an area that had so far been spared the hostilities in the rest of the region.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks against journalists covering the war in Gaza and Lebanon in the past year.

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, with cars marked “PRESS” overturned and covered in dust and debris and at least one satellite dish for live broadcasting totally destroyed. The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike, and later said it was looking into it.

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. It came after a strike earlier in the week that hit an office belonging to Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs. Both outlets are aligned with Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran.

The strike in the Hasbaya region, which had so far been spared from the Israeli airstrikes pummeling other parts of south Lebanon, drew immediate condemnation from officials, journalists and press advocacy groups. TV crews had arrived in Hasbaya, deeming 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 targetting, 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 miraculously saved by colleagues who managed to move the debris covering him 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, the Committee to Protect Journalists 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 in the report released Oct. 4. 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 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, told AP Friday that 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.

Originally Published: October 25, 2024 at 6:06 a.m.