An Israeli airstrike early yesterday killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon — a rare strike on an area that had so far been spared the hostilities in the rest of the region.
It was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks against journalists covering the war in Gaza and Lebanon in the past year.
The 3am airstrike turned the site — a series of guesthouses nestled among trees that had been rented by various media outlets covering the war — into rubble, with vehicles marked “PRESS” overturned and covered in dust and debris. The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike, and later said it was looking into it.
Photo: AFP
Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida of the Beirut-based pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV, and camera operator Wissam Qassim, who worked for al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group. It came after a strike earlier in the week that hit an office belonging to al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs. Both outlets are aligned with Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran.
The strike in the Hasbaya region drew widespread condemnation from officials, journalists and press advocacy groups. TV crews had arrived in Hasbaya, deeming it safer after Israel had ordered an evacuation order for a town further south from which they were reporting.
“That is why we consider it a direct targeting, aimed at getting the journalists out of the south,” said Elsy Moufarrej, coordinator for the Alternative Press Syndicate in Lebanon. “They want to prevent the journalists from covering and having presence in the south of Lebanon.”
Lebanese Minister for Information Ziad Makary said the journalists were killed while reporting on what he called Israel’s “crimes,” adding that they were among a large group of members of the 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,” he wrote on X.
Imran Khan, a senior correspondent for al-Jazeera English who was among the journalists in the Hasbaya Village Club guesthouses, said the airstrike hit at about 3:30am without warning.
“These were just journalists that were sleeping in bed after long days of covering the conflict,” he posted on social media, adding that he and his team were unhurt.
In a report earlier this month, the Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, had been killed in Gaza and Lebanon — more journalists than have died in any year since it started documenting journalist killings in 1992.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work