Israeli attacks killed five people in Lebanon despite a 10-day ceasefire, with one of those killed identified as veteran journalist Amal Khalil, in yet another attack on civilians and media workers.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said an initial Israeli strike hit a car in the southern village of at-Tiri, killing two people inside.
A second strike then targeted a nearby building in the same village, wounding Khalil and trapping her beneath the rubble. She was later found dead at the scene, her employer, the prominent newspaper Al Akhbar, announced.
Reports said Red Cross teams and other rescue workers had tried to reach two journalists covering the incident but were prevented from doing so by continued Israeli strikes on the area.
Journalist Zeinab Faraj was taken to the hospital in what doctors described as a very serious condition and is expected to undergo surgery.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of committing war crimes by targeting journalists and obstructing rescue efforts.
“Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes war crimes,” he said in a post on X.
“Israel’s targeting of media workers in the south while they carry out their professional duties is no longer isolated incidents, but has become an established approach that we condemn and reject, as do all international laws and conventions,” he added.
The killings came as Israel continued attacks across south Lebanon despite the truce, prompting renewed criticism that Tel Aviv is exploiting ceasefire terms to maintain military operations with impunity.
Human rights groups and activists have warned that one clause of the ceasefire, allowing Israel to act in self-defence, is being used as cover for continued strikes inside Lebanese territory.
The latest escalation comes as Lebanon and Israel are due to hold another round of talks in Washington on Thursday, where Beirut is expected to request a one-month extension to the ceasefire that began on 16 April.
President Joseph Aoun said on Wednesday that “contacts are underway to extend the ceasefire period”.
Lebanon has appointed diplomat and former ambassador to the United States, Simon Karam, to lead its delegation in the negotiations.
Israel said ahead of the talks that it had no “serious disagreements” with Lebanon and wanted to “work together”, even as it continued bombing Lebanese territory.
The new talks are expected to bring together US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad, in the presence of US ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is also expected to attend, according to a State Department official.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was outraged by the latest Israeli attack.
“The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” the organisation’s regional director Sara Qudah said in a statement.
