An Israeli military strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday resulted in the deaths of three journalists who were reporting on the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah conflict. The victims included a veteran correspondent and two reporters from a sibling team, sparking condemnation from Lebanese officials.
BEIRUT — Three journalists lost their lives Saturday when Israeli forces conducted an airstrike in southern Lebanon while the reporters were covering the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, according to their respective television networks.
Al-Manar TV, affiliated with Hezbollah, reported that veteran correspondent Ali Shoeib died in the Saturday attack in southern Lebanon.
Israeli military officials confirmed they had deliberately targeted Shoeib, claiming he served as a Hezbollah intelligence agent, though they offered no supporting evidence for this assertion.
Al-Mayadeen TV, a Beirut-based pan-Arab network, announced that reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother Mohammed, who worked as a video journalist, were also killed in the same strike in Jezzine district in southern Lebanon. Ftouni had completed a live television report from the region just before the attack occurred.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun strongly criticized the attack, describing it as a “flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists.”
In its coverage, Al-Manar referred to the incident as an Israeli attack on media personnel that resulted in the “martyrdom of the icon of resistance media.” Shoeib had established himself as a prominent Lebanese war reporter, spending almost thirty years covering southern Lebanon for Al-Manar.
Israeli military representatives alleged that Shoeib was “operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” They further claimed he maintained communication with Hezbollah fighters and promoted hostility toward Israeli military personnel and citizens, though they provided no additional details.
Al-Manar TV chose not to address the Israeli accusations directly but characterized their correspondent as “distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events.”
Israel’s accusations echoed similar claims the military has made against Palestinian reporters they have targeted during their conflict with Hamas in Gaza, alleging these journalists were actually Hamas operatives disguised as media workers.
The Israeli military made no reference to the other two fatalities in their official statement.
Throughout the current Israel-Hezbollah conflict that started on March 2, Israeli air forces have attacked Hezbollah civilian infrastructure, including Al-Manar’s headquarters and the organization’s Al-Nour radio facility.
This Saturday incident occurred just days following another Israeli airstrike on a Beirut apartment that killed Mohammed Sherri, who directed political programming at Al-Manar TV, along with his spouse.
These recent fatalities increase the total number of journalists and media personnel killed in Lebanon this year to five.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, freelance photographer Hussain Hamood, who had worked with Al-Manar TV, was also killed Wednesday in Nabatiyeh, a southern Lebanese city.