In the early hours of Friday, an Israeli airstrike targeted a guesthouse in southeastern Lebanon, killing three journalists while they slept, marking a rare assault on a region previously untouched by recent hostilities. The strike occurred around 3 a.m., leveling a series of guesthouses occupied by journalists covering the ongoing Gaza and Lebanon conflicts. Vehicles marked with “PRESS” were left overturned and covered in dust, with no prior warning issued by the Israeli military, who later stated they were investigating the incident.
The victims were Ghassan Najjar, a camera operator, and Mohammed Rida, a broadcast technician, both employed by Al-Mayadeen TV, a Beirut-based pan-Arab network. The third casualty was Wissam Qassim, a camera operator for Al-Manar TV, which is associated with Hezbollah. The Israeli strike came shortly after an earlier airstrike on an Al-Mayadeen office on Beirut’s outskirts. Both Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar have ties to Hezbollah and its primary ally, Iran.
This incident drew immediate condemnation from officials, press advocacy groups, and journalists. The attack occurred in Hasbaya, a region considered safe from the intense Israeli airstrikes impacting southern Lebanon. Many media crews had relocated to Hasbaya following Israel’s evacuation orders for nearby towns. According to Elsy Moufarrej, the coordinator for Lebanon’s Alternative Press Syndicate, “They want to prevent the journalists from covering and having presence in the south of Lebanon.” Moufarrej argued that this strike was “a direct targeting” intended to drive journalists out of the area.
Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the strike, alleging it was a calculated attack on journalists covering what he described as “Israel’s crimes.” Makary emphasized that the journalists were part of a larger group, writing on social media, “This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions.”
Among the journalists at the scene was Imran Khan, a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English. Khan shared on social media that the strike hit without warning around 3:30 a.m., while the journalists were resting after a long day of coverage. “These were just journalists that were sleeping in bed after long days of covering the conflict,” he posted, noting that his team was unharmed.
Hussein Hoteit, a cameraman for Egypt’s Al-Qahira TV, described waking up to the weight of the building’s collapsed walls and ceiling around him. Hoteit recounted his narrow escape, with colleagues freeing him from debris minutes later. Speaking from his hospital bed, where he was receiving treatment for thigh injuries, he shared that two missiles hit the chalet next door, though he hadn’t heard them due to the chaos of the collapse.
This attack adds to a troubling list of journalists killed by Israeli forces over the past year. A recent report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) recorded the deaths of at least 128 journalists and media workers in Gaza and Lebanon. Released on October 4, the report described Israel’s war conduct as having inflicted “an unprecedented and horrific toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape.” The CPJ noted that, with few exceptions, these deaths were caused by Israeli forces, making this the deadliest year for journalists since the organization began tracking fatalities in 1992.
The death toll among journalists has sparked global condemnation from press advocacy organizations and international bodies, including the United Nations. Israeli officials, however, maintain that they do not target journalists deliberately. Lebanon’s Health Minister reported that over the past year, Israeli attacks had claimed the lives of 11 journalists and injured eight others.
This strike follows a string of fatal incidents involving journalists in the region. In November 2023, two Al-Mayadeen TV journalists lost their lives in a drone strike, and a month earlier, Israeli shelling killed Issam Abdallah, a videographer for Reuters, in southern Lebanon. That attack also wounded journalists from Agence France-Presse and Qatar’s Al-Jazeera.
Israel recently leveled allegations against Al Jazeera journalists, accusing them of affiliation with militant groups based on documents supposedly found in Gaza. Al Jazeera has dismissed these allegations as a tactic aimed at silencing the few journalists still covering the conflict. “This is a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region,” the network stated in response to the accusations. The Committee to Protect Journalists has also rejected these allegations, stating that “Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”
Jad Shahrour, a spokesperson for the Samir Kassir Eyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom, condemned the targeting of press centers as an attempt to silence the truth. He explained to The Associated Press that targeting journalists in this manner suggests “a media blackout” is being enforced, describing it as a troubling shift from targeting press in Gaza to now focusing on Lebanon.
Al-Mayadeen’s director, Ghassan bin Jiddo, asserted that Friday’s strike was a deliberate attack aimed at silencing coverage of Israel’s military operations. Ali Shoeib, a well-known Al-Manar correspondent stationed in southern Lebanon, shared a video taken on his cellphone, reporting that his camera operator of several months was among those killed in the strike. Shoeib alleged that the Israeli military was aware that multiple media outlets housed journalists in the area. In the video, Shoeib poignantly stated, “We were reporting the news and showing the suffering of the victims, and now we are the news and the victims of Israel’s crimes.”
