Israeli strike kills three journalists in Lebanon, drawing condemnations
Media workers in Lebanon have been subjected to killings and threats from the Israeli military since Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities began last year.
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on Friday at dawn hit a residential compound housing media personnel in the town of Hasbaya, in southeastern Lebanon, killing at least three journalists and injuring three others, in the latest violence against press workers in the country since the start of Israeli-Hezbollah cross-border hostilities last year.
The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen channel, politically close to Hezbollah, said early on Friday that its cameraman Ghassan Najjar and its broadcast engineer Mohammad Rida were among those killed.
The third journalist was a cameraman working for Hezbollah’s official Al-Manar channel, whom it identified as Wissam Qassem.
Mohammed Farhat, a reporter for the local Al-Jadeed channel, said two strikes hit the complex where 16 journalists from several local, regional and international media outlets covering the war in the south were present. Reporting from the targeted site, Farhat said the journalists had rented the complex in Hasbaya after moving from the town of Ibl al-Saqi, in the southern district of Marjayoun, following threats from the Israeli army and its expansion of strikes.
