Two reporters and a cameraman were killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to two television stations affiliated with Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.
The Hezbollah-run Al Manar station reported that its long-time correspondent Ali Shouyaeb died after a strike targeted a vehicle near the town of Jezzine.
In the same attack, Fatima Ftouni, a correspondent for news channel Al Mayadeen, and her brother Mohamed, a cameraman, were also killed, according to the broadcasters.
The three media workers were reportedly inside a car when it was struck during an Israeli attack in the area. No further details were immediately available.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the killings, accusing Israel of “once again [violating] the most basic rules of international law, international humanitarian law, and the laws of war by targeting media correspondents who are civilians carrying out their professional duty.”
Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos also denounced the killing of journalists.
“Once again, we are shocked by the martyrdom of journalists. We condemn and denounce in the strongest terms Israel’s repeated and deliberate targeting of journalists,” he said in a statement.
The Israeli army confirmed that it had targeted Ali Shouyaeb and that he had been killed in the strike, but described him as “a terrorist in the intelligence unit of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.”
The military did not initially comment on the fate of Ftouni.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) alleged that Shouyaeb had “operated within the Hezbollah terrorist organization under the guise of a journalist for the Al-Manar network, while operating systematically to expose the locations of IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and along the border.”
It was not possible to independently verify the claims.
Shouyaeb was widely known as one of Al-Manar’s war correspondents, known for his close-up coverage from frontline areas along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Fatouni was also known for her reporting from war-ravaged southern Lebanon.
The killings come amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which flared up again following the start of the Iran war.
During the Gaza war, the Israeli military killed journalists on several occasions. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Israel of pursuing a “long-standing practice of labeling journalists as terrorists or engaging in militant activity, without providing sufficient and reliable evidence to support these claims”.