The Israeli airstrike that killed three journalists on Saturday struck amid an intensifying Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, with both sides trading rocket and air bombardment claims and Lebanon’s official casualty figures rising. According to TV stations in Lebanon, the journalists were reporting from southern districts when the attack hit.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV identified one of the dead as Ali Shoeib, describing him as a longtime correspondent covering southern Lebanon for nearly three decades. The station said Shoeib was killed in the airstrike in southern Lebanon, and it later characterized him as “distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events.”
The Israeli military said it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative and claiming he was “operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” The military also said Shoeib maintained contact with Hezbollah militants and incited against Israeli troops and civilians, but it did not provide evidence and did not elaborate in the statement. In that same account, the Israeli military did not mention the other two journalists who died in the strike.
Al-Mayadeen TV, meanwhile, said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in a separate part of southern Lebanon during the same airstrike, along with her brother, Mohammed, who was described as a video journalist. Al-Mayadeen said Ftouni was on air with a live report shortly before the strike.
Lebanon’s top officials condemned the attack, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a “flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists.” Al-Manar TV did not respond directly to the Israeli allegations in its public statement, but instead focused on Shoeib’s work as a reporter.
The Associated Press report also placed Saturday’s strike in the context of Israel’s broader campaign against Hezbollah-linked media and Lebanon’s healthcare system. The Israeli air force has struck Hezbollah’s civilian targets since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, including the headquarters of Al-Manar TV and the group’s Al-Nour radio station. The report also said the new deaths came days after an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, described as the head of political programs at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.
As Hezbollah launched projectiles from Lebanon, Israel’s military said it received about 250 projectiles in the prior 24 hours, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines; the official said most were aimed at Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and only 23 crossed into Israel. In Beirut, the Health Ministry said 47 people had been killed and 112 wounded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,189 killed since March 2. Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said nine paramedics were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, raising the toll among health care workers to 51, while Israel’s military said nine soldiers were injured in two attacks in southern Lebanon.