Israel Following Gaza Pattern In Lebanon; Kills Three Journalists (image @SweeneySteve)
Israel killed three journalists in Lebanon. The Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) bombed a compound where journalists are being housed in a series of villas. Reportedly, Israel did not give any warnings or evacuation orders, and the area was calm. It is believed that the attack is a targeted strike.
The killed were identified as cameraman Ghassan Najar, and technician Mohammed Rida of Al Mayadeen channel, a Pan-Arab news outlet. Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was also killed in the air raid on the town of Hasbaiyya.
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The strike at journalists comes just two days after Israel carried out an air strike on an office belonging to Al Mayadeen, which is politically allied with Hezbollah and is based in Beirut.
“Al Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet,” Al Mayadeen TV said, following the Israeli strike on its office on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs.
On November 21, 2023, two Al Mayadeen journalists reporting on military activity along the southern Lebanese border with Israel were killed in an Israeli strike.
Israel has been deliberately targeting journalist on the battlefield. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, Israel has killed at least 128 journalists and media workers from the Strip, said Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Israel has blocked the entry of outside journalists and media workers from entering into Gaza, and Israel, after it started war in the besieged enclave, following Hamas attack on Tel Aviv on October 7th last year.
Al Jazeera and other media organisation has hired journalists from Gaza to cover what is happening on ground.
Israel said over six of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza are members of the enclave’s resistance movement Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
The media organisation condemned the “unfounded allegations” by the Israeli army, which in a post on X described some of the named Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents as “operatives” working for Hamas’s armed wing to promote the group’s “propaganda” in the besieged and bombarded enclave.
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Israel made similar claim against United Nations organisation UNRWA workers, which prompted several countries including US to recall funding the organisation, which provides food for the displaced civilians in Gaza. The move has made the situation worse for the already starved population of the coastal enclave.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on X that Israel had “repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”
