The Israeli strike targeted the residence of the media compound in Hasbayya killing three journalists from Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar.
The Israeli occupation forces conducted an airstrike Friday morning targeting the residence of press crews in Hasbayya, in the south of Lebanon, killing three journalists and injuring three others, the Lebanese Ministry of Health stated.
The three slain journalists were Ghassan Najjar, a cameraman with the Lebanese media network Al-Mayadeen; Mohammad Reda, a broadcast engineer with Al-MayadeenK and Wissam Qassem, a cameraman with the Lebanese media network Al-Manar.
The Lebanese Civil Defense confirmed the death of the three journalists early Friday in a strike on the residence of press crews in Hasbayya, The Lebanese National Network (NNA) reported.
Both Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar slammed Israel’s aggression, labeling it as a war crime.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al-Mayadeen, Ghassan Ben Jeddou, held the occupation “fully responsible for this war crime in which it targeted the journalists’ crews, including Al Mayadeen’s.”
Israel targeted & killed three more journalists in Lebanon. Why? Because it can.
The journalists residence was coordinated with all the parties involved. https://t.co/z7qLTqvtqQ operator Ghassan Najjar.
2.Broadcast technician Mohamed Reda.
3. Camera operator Wissam Qassem. pic.twitter.com/1ouk5fMjFT— Samira Mohyeddin سمیرا (@SMohyeddin) October 25, 2024
“The occupation’s targeting of the journalists’ residence was deliberate, and there are others wounded from other Arab channels as well,” he said.
According to Ben Jeddou, the Israeli occupation “finds pleasure in killing,” and among those it targets are journalists “who expose its criminality, so it hates them sadistically.”
The chairman of Al-Mayadeen vowed that the media network will keep reporting the truth despite all the risks.
“Al-Mayadeen will keep going and shall never retreat,” he said, noting that this was not a targeted assault against Al-Mayadeen solely but it is “an aggression against all press crews.”
Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent in the south of Lebanon, Fatima Ftouni, confirmed that the strike “targeted a residential area where journalists, cameramen, and technicians from various media outlets were stationed in the region for several weeks.”
Wide Condemnation
The Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack on journalists, saying it as a war crime “that passes without any deterrent or an international voice to stop what is happening.”
He added that Israel’s intentional targeting of journalists aims to intimidate the media to cover up for the crimes and destruction it commits.
For his part, the Lebanese Minister of Information, Ziad Makari, slammed Israel’s latest crime against journalists.
At least three vehicles clearly marked PRESS were at the house Israel bombed without warning in Lebanon overnight. Eighteen journalists were staying there. The airstrike killed three: Ghassan Najjar, Mohammed Reda and Wissam Qassem, per colleagues. https://t.co/tdi9XPMaoR pic.twitter.com/4ETewfBJvt
— Malachy Browne (@malachybrowne) October 25, 2024
“What occurred is a war crime added to the criminal record of an enemy that disregards all laws and violates every taboo in full view of the entire world,” Makari said while extending his condolences to Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen for the death of their journalists.
The Director-General of the Ministry of Information, Dr. Hassan Falha, also condemned “the deliberate killing of journalists and media personnel in Hasbayya by Israeli forces,” as reported by NNA.
Falha labeled the crime as a “clear war crime against international and humanitarian law.”
In a post on X, the director-general stressed that “such actions reveal the increasingly criminal nature of the occupation, which will not extinguish the flame of truth or silence the voice of a free press.”
War on Lebanon
Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, on October 7, 2023, the Lebanese movement Hezbollah has engaged directly, but relatively in a limited way in the war against the Israeli occupation.
Israel escalated its aggression with the cyber-terror attacks on September 17 and 18, which claimed the lives of at least 37 people including children, and injured around 3000 others.
🇱🇧🇮🇱 3 #journalists were killed in #Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike on a guest-house compound in the south-east of the country. Their deaths have prompted international outcry.
FRANCE 24’s @camille_knight1 has more ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/3saCuQxpc2
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) October 25, 2024
This went hand in hand with a series of assassinations of Hezbollah leaders, the last of which was that of the Secretary-General of the resistance party Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.
These developments coincided with unprecedented bombings and airstrikes by Israel’s army on different cities across Lebanon particularly in the south, Bekaa and the southern district of Beirut.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced on October 24 that 2574 Lebanese were killed and 12001 were injured since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon.
The Lebanese Government Emergency Committee announced on October 24 that the number of shelters has reached 1,097 centers, 922 of which stand at maximum capacity.
The Head of the committee, Minister of Environment Nasser Yassin revealed that around “50 thousand families have been displaced to approved shelters, noting that the total number of displaced people exceeds 1.2 million.”
According to the committee, 344,819 Syrians and 150,104 Lebanese crossed into Syrian territory from September 23 to October 23.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
