Relatives and colleagues of three journalists killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Hasbaya gather around a Red Cross ambulance as their bodies arrive at a hospital in Beirut on October 25, 2024. AFP
Two journalists working for Al-Mayadeen Network were killed in the strike. The outlet identified them as cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohamed Reda.
A third journalist working for another outlet, Al-Manar, was also killed in the strike. The news outlet identified him as cameraman Wissam Qassem.
The guesthouse in southern Lebanon’s Hasbaya was being used by more than a dozen journalists from at least seven media organizations.
Ghassan bin Jiddo, the director of Al-Mayadeen, said in a social media post that the journalists were deliberately targeted.
“We hold the (Israeli) occupation fully responsible for this war crime, in which journalist crews, including the Al-Mayadeen team, were targeted,” he said.
Khaled El-Balshy, the head of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, described the attack as a “horrific war crime” targeting journalists who “insist on practising their profession … exposing the Zionist war crimes against civilians throughout the past months.”
“The latest crime will remain just one episode in the systematic targeting of the press … effective steps must be taken to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes as war criminals,” he said in a social media post.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemned the latest targeting of journalists, stressing that the international community must hold Israel accountable for its "impunity in journalist killings."
Outside of the now-collapsed building were cars clearly marked with “PRESS” covered in dust and rubble, the Associated Press reported.
An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from the site of the attack said "there was no warning given" before the Israeli strike.
Journalists from other media organizations, including the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Sky News Arabic, and Al Jazeera English, were also nearby when the overnight strike happened, Deutsche Welle reported.
An Al-Jadeed journalist told BBC that "all official parties were told that this house was being used as a stay-house for journalists."
"We coordinated with them all," he said during a live broadcast.
Youmna Fawwaz, a reporter for MTV Lebanon, told BBC that journalists were awakened by the strike at around 03:00am local time, stressing that the compound ceiling collapsed on those inside.
Fawwaz explained that each news organization had their own building in the compound and that Al Mayadeen reporters' housing was "obliterated" while Al-Manar employees were inside.
She also said that the media compound was known as such to both Israel and Hezbollah.
"The airstrike was carried out on purpose. Everyone knew we were there. All the cars were labelled as ‘Press’ and ‘TV’. There wasn't even a warning given to us," she told BBC.
"They are trying to terrorise us just like they do in Gaza. Israelis are trying to prevent us from covering the story," she added.
Lebanese reaction
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the "deliberate" strike "targeting journalists," saying it was among the "war crimes committed by the Israeli enemy" and "aims to terrorise the media to cover up crimes and destruction".
Earlier, Minister of Information Ziad Makary said Israel had "waited for the journalists' nighttime break" to strike while they slept, also describing the attack as deliberate and a "war crime."
"This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions," Makary wrote on X.
The Lebanese health ministry said three others were injured in the blast.
Israel has killed five reporters in prior Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to a BBC tally, including Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah who was killed by Israeli tank fire in an attack that injured six other journalists last October.
Lebanon’s health ministry has reported more than 2,590 people in Lebanon killed by Israel’s bombardment and invasion over the past year, with women and children accounting for 25 percent of the dead.
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