Beirut, October 25, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled by Friday’s Israeli attack that killed two journalists and a media worker and injured at least three others, and calls for an independent investigation to determine whether the journalists’ compound was deliberately targeted.
At about 3 a.m. on October 25, an airstrike hit a compound housing 18 journalists from multiple media outlets in south Lebanon’s Hasbaya area, killing pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV’s camera operator Ghassan Najjar, broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda, and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV’s camera operator Wissam Kassem.
The three injured were reported to be camera operator Hassan Hoteit and assistant camera operator Zakaria Fadel of the media production company Isol and Al Jazeera camera operator Ali Mortada.
“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 CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account.”
The journalists had moved to Hasbaya from Marjayoun, which is further south and had been hit by Israeli strikes.
Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib said in a video aired by his outlet that the Israeli military knew that the area that was struck housed journalists of different media organizations, The Associated Press reported
The privately owned local news station Al Jadeed aired footage showing collapsed buildings and cars marked “Press” strewn with dust and rubble and its correspondent Mohammed Farhat posted a video showing his bed covered in rubble.
Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary described the attack as a “war crime.”
“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists in the place representing seven media institutions,” he said.
CPJ has confirmed that Israeli strikes have killed three journalists on assignment and injured at least seven in Lebanon since the IDF and Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah began exchanging fire in October 2023.
CPJ in New York emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking if its forces were aware that there were journalists in the compound but did not immediately receive a response.
