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BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Saturday tragically claimed the lives of three journalists who were reporting on the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, according to statements from their respective television networks.
Al-Manar TV, an outlet associated with Hezbollah, announced the death of Ali Shoeib, a veteran correspondent, during the airstrike in the region. The Israeli military claimed that Shoeib was a Hezbollah intelligence officer, although they did not provide any supporting evidence for this assertion.
In a related development, Al-Mayadeen TV, a Beirut-based pan-Arab broadcaster, reported the deaths of their reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. The siblings were killed in the same airstrike in the Jezzine district. Fatima had been delivering a live report from southern Lebanon moments before the attack.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from Lebanese officials, with President Joseph Aoun denouncing the airstrike as a “flagrant crime” and emphasizing that it contravenes international laws and agreements designed to safeguard journalists.
Top officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a “flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists.”
Al-Manar said in a report that an Israeli airstrike targeted journalists, leading to the “martyrdom of the icon of resistance media.” A well-known Lebanese war correspondent, Shoeib had covered south Lebanon for Al-Manar for nearly three decades.
The Israeli army claimed that Shoeib was “operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” The army also accused him of maintaining contact with Hezbollah militants and inciting against Israeli troops and civilians, without elaborating.
Al-Manar TV did not respond to the Israeli allegations but described its correspondent as “distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events.”
Israel’s claim mirrored past Israeli military allegations against Palestinian journalists that it targeted in its war on Hamas the Gaza Strip, accusing them of being Hamas militants posing as reporters.
The Israeli military did not mention the two others who died in its statement.
Since the last Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, Israel’s air force has struck Hezbollah’s civilian targets, including the headquarters of Al-Manar and the group’s Al-Nour radio station.
Saturday’s strike came days after an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.
The latest deaths bring the number of journalists and media workers killed this year in Lebanon to five.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that freelance photojournalist Hussain Hamood, who used to collaborate with Al-Manar TV, was also killed Wednesday in the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
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