In calmer times, the Hasbaya Village Club was a leafy oasis in southern Lebanon, its vacation bungalows with their red tile roofs set near a small river, looking out over the stunning mountain vistas of the region close to the Israeli border.
In the past month, since Israeli forces moved into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, the bungalows have housed 18 journalists from international and Lebanese news organizations, according to a statement by Ziad T. Makary, Lebanon’s minister of information. The correspondents, cameramen and other media workers wanted to be close enough to cover the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but able to retreat from the tumult of the battlefield at the end of each day.
The battle came to them around 3 a.m. on Friday, however, with three killed and at least three wounded after what several reporters who survived described as a shattering Israeli airstrike that destroyed three of the bungalows while their occupants were asleep.
The three men killed became the latest journalists to die while covering the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Both Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, and Mr. Makary called the attack a “war crime.” The prime minister, who posted a statement on X, said, “This deliberate aggression certainly aims to intimidate the media to cover up the crimes and destruction being committed.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had bombed a structure affiliated with Hezbollah. “Following intelligence information, the I.D.F. struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, from which Hezbollah terrorists were operating,” it said. “The strike was carried out while the terrorists were located inside the structure.”
The Hasbaya strike was under review, the statement said, after reports emerged that journalists had been hit.
The Israeli military said that it has never deliberately targeted journalists, but that it considers a member of “an organized armed group” such as the military wing of Hamas, or those who participate in hostilities as “a lawful target.”
International press organizations said the world was failing to uphold international humanitarian law that protects journalists as civilians.
“Journalists should not be attacked for doing their jobs, regardless of their affiliation, regardless of the editorial policies of their particular media,” said Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns for the Paris-headquartered Reporters without Borders, known by its French acronym, R.S.F.
The journalists staying at the bungalows included employees of seven international or Lebanese news organizations, she said.
Both the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, and Reporters without Borders called for an international investigation, echoing previous statements regarding such deaths. Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law, they noted.
“C.P.J. is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, “ Carlos Martinez de la Serna, the program director for the organization, said in a statement.
The toll of journalists has been particularly high among Palestinians reporters in Gaza, with more than 130 killed, according to C.P.J.
Friday’s attack came two days after the Israeli military accused six reporters based in Gaza for the Al Jazeera network of being fighters in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the latest escalation in Israel’s ongoing feud with the Arabic-language broadcaster backed by Qatar. Al Jazeera vehemently denied the accusation.
The allegations against the six journalists were only the latest chapter in Israel’s campaign against Al Jazeera. The organization’s Arabic-language service is widely seen in Israel as being close to Hamas.
The channel’s correspondents are also some of the few remaining reporters on the ground in Gaza to document the devastating impact of Israel’s operations. Israel has largely barred the international press from entering except on guided military tours.
While the majority of journalist deaths have occurred in Gaza, there have been previous instances in Lebanon since the present hostilities began in October 2023. Israeli forces in southern Lebanon killed Issam Abdallah, a cameraman for the Reuters news agency, that month, and two journalists working for Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese channel, died in November 2023.
Those killed in the attack on Friday included Wissam Kassem, a cameraman for Al-Manar, Hezbollah’s television station, as well as Ghassan Najjar, a cameraman and Mohammed Reda, a broadcast engineer, both of whom worked for Al Mayadeen TV, a channel considered sympathetic to Hezbollah. Israel, along with the United States and many Western nations, considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Ali Shoieb, a reporter for Al-Manar, said he was filming his own standup in front of the wreckage hours after his longtime cameraman, Mr. Kassem, was killed. There were no weapons at the guesthouse, no signs of any military presence and no one with any military ties, he said, adding, “Our weapons were cameras, our weapons were pictures, our weapons were articles.”
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