Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon that killed a journalist on Wednesday are a war crime, Lebanon’s prime minister said. The journalists’ union said rescuers were prevented from entering the collapsed building where the journalist was left trapped under the rubble.
Amal Khalil, 43, a reporter for the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, bled to death in the rubble of a building struck by Israeli forces after Israeli gunfire prevented ambulance crews from reaching him for “nearly four hours,” according to the Union of Journalists of Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, accused Israel of war crimes in a social media post on Wednesday, saying that “Israel’s targeting of media workers in the south while doing their work is no longer just an incident, but …
AFP via Getty Images
Photographer Zeinab Faraj was also injured in the attack, the union said.
The Israel Defense Forces denied that the army prevented rescue teams from reaching the scene of the incident and said in a statement on Wednesday that it “does not understand journalists and is taking measures to minimize harm to them while maintaining the safety and security of its soldiers.”
Khalil and Faraj were working near the town of Al-Tayri in southern Lebanon when an Israeli jet crashed into a car in front of them, killing two people, before attacking the journalists’ car, according to the union.
The IDF said it identified and targeted two vehicles that left “a military building used by Hezbollah … and went to the troops in a way that jeopardized their security.” The union said the IDF then hit the building where the two journalists were sheltering two hours later.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said the IDF pursued Khalil and Faraj, “targeting the house they fled to.”
“When the Red Cross of Lebanon arrived to transport the wounded,” said the department, “the enemy prevented the completion of the humanitarian work, fired a bomb at the ambulance and targeted it with a gun, so it was not possible to evacuate Khalil.”
Rescuers were able to remove Faraj and the bodies of the two men who died in the attack.
Benoît Durand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images 
The Ministry called the incident a “double violation” for allegedly obstructing rescue efforts and targeting the Red Cross ambulance.
Clayton Weimer, executive director of Reporters Without Borders, said the organization contacted the Israeli army asking them to allow the ambulances to pass.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Israeli military has killed at least 260 media workers since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, most of them Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
The IDF did not acknowledge Khalil’s death. Last month, it described three journalists working for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV network, who were killed in an Israeli strike, as terrorists of the group’s military wing.
In 2024, Khalil and the journalists’ union said he was targeted with “death threats from Israel” and warned to leave southern Lebanon.
“They said, ‘We’re going to separate your head from your shoulders,'” he said in a video that went viral after his death.
On Thursday, mourners carried Khalil’s coffin, draped in a Lebanese flag, through the streets of Baysariyah, his hometown in southern Lebanon. A blue jacket and helmet were sitting on top of the box.
The killing comes as Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met in Washington, DC, on Thursday to discuss extending the ten-day ceasefire signed on April 16. Both Hezbollah and the IDF have accused each other of violating the fragile accord.
