AFP,
Beirut
Lebanon’s president and prime minister yesterday accused Israel of a war crime, after an airstrike killed a Lebanese journalist in the country’s south, where Israeli forces occupy several areas.
Rescuers and the reporter’s employer on Wednesday confirmed the death of Amal Khalil, a 42-year-old journalist who worked for the Lebanese daily Al-Akbar.
The civil defence agency said she was killed in a strike on a house in the village of al-Tiril.
“Israel deliberately targets journalists in order to conceal the truth about its crimes against Lebanon,” said President Joseph Aoun, in a statement denouncing “war crimes.”
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam wrote on X that “targeting journalists and obstructing access for rescue teams constitutes a war crime,” adding that his government would take the attack to international bodies.
A 10-day ceasefire has been in effect in Lebanon since Friday, pausing the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah that has left more than 2,400 dead in Lebanon.
Khalil and another journalist had taken refuge in a house in al-Tiri after an Israeli airstrike targeted a car in front of them, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
It said the two occupants of the vehicle, the mayor of the nearby Israeli-occupied town of Bint Jbeil and a man with him, were killed.
An Israeli strike then targeted the house where the two journalists had taken refuge.
The health ministry said the attack wounded journalist Zeinab Faraj -- who was taken to hospital -- and left Khalil trapped.
A Lebanese Red Cross official had told AFP they had “managed to rescue Zeinab Faraj” but had not reached Khalil and withdrew “because of a warning strike”.
Lebanese authorities had to contact UN peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon, and it took several hours before rescue workers could regain access to the area to recover the journalist’s body from the rubble.
Khalil, known for her courage and respected by her colleagues, had covered various wars in the region.
On March 28, three journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the south, and UN experts called for an international investigation.