Mourners weep next to the coffin of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil during her funeral procession in Bissariye town, south of Sidon. AFP
Acting as co-chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), the two nations expressed "strong condemnation" of violence directed at press personnel and urged all parties, specifically Israeli authorities, to ensure their safety.
"Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war," the statement read. "Attacks on journalists in Lebanon, including journalist Amal Khalil, killed in an Israeli strike on 22 April, are unacceptable."
Khalil, a 43-year-old correspondent for the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, was killed on Wednesday in the southern village of at-Tiri. According to witnesses and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Khalil and her colleague, Zeinab Faraj, sought refuge in a house after an earlier strike hit a vehicle near their location. The residential building was subsequently targeted in what reporters and emergency responders described as a "double-tap" strike.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described the killing as a "blatant war crime," denouncing Israeli forces for intentionally targeting the journalists and obstructing rescue teams. The Lebanese Red Cross reported that its teams were prevented from reaching the site for nearly six hours by Israeli gunfire and stun grenades, a delay Salam cited as evidence of "intentional obstruction."
The killing follows reports from rights groups, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF), that Khalil had previously received direct death threats via WhatsApp from Israeli phone numbers.
According to Khalil, who shared the messages before her death, the warnings ordered her to stop reporting from southern Lebanon, explicitly stating, "We will separate your head from your shoulders if you don't leave the south."
Khalil's assassination by Israeli occupation forces marks another violation of the fragile, 10-day US-brokered ceasefire that began on 16 April and was extended by three weeks on Thursday. She is the ninth journalist Israel has killed in Lebanon in 2026, bringing the total journalist death toll in the country to 27 media personnel, since the outbreak of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
The MFC's statement concludes by calling on all parties to "make every effort to ensure that media workers in Lebanon can conduct their work freely and safely."
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