Lebanon accused Israel of targeting journalists in a "deliberate" attack that killed three media workers in the country's south on Friday, calling the incident a "war crime." Pro-Iran Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said cameraman Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda were killed in the strike on a journalists' residence in Hasbaya, south Lebanon. Another TV outlet, Al-Manar, run by Hezbollah, said video journalist Wissam Qassem was also killed in the strike on a bungalow located in a resort that several media organizations covering the Israel-Hezbollah war had rented out.
After the strike, a car bearing a "press" marking was crushed under debris. Roofing tiles were blown off, and rubble littered the inside of the bungalow and its surroundings. The strike "targeting journalists" was, according to Prime Minister Najib Mikati, among the "war crimes committed by the Israeli enemy." He also said the attack was "deliberate."
Earlier, Information Minister Ziad Makary said Israel had "waited for the journalists' nighttime break" to strike while they slept. "This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions," Makary wrote on X.
Journalists from other media organizations, including Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Sky News Arabic and Al Jazeera English, were also resting nearby when the strike hit, in an area outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.
After nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by Hamas's attack, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon and last month launched a massive bombing campaign targeting mainly Hezbollah strongholds across the country, sending in ground troops on September 30.
The war in Lebanon has killed at least 1,580 people, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) tally of Lebanese health ministry figures. Lebanon's health minister said Friday that 163 rescuers and health workers have been killed in the country in a year of cross-border fire.
Israel's military on Friday said it had struck more than 200 militant targets in Lebanon over the past day, as it announced the deaths of five soldiers in fighting in south Lebanon. It also confirmed it struck a northern border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, accusing Hezbollah of moving weapons through it.