Rights Groups: Israeli attack on Lebanon Journalists Was a War Crime

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Legal Agenda said Thursday that an Israeli strike in south Lebanon on 22 April 2026 killed journalist Amal Khalil and injured journalist Zeinab Faraj in a war crime, The Guardian reported.

The organisations said their investigations showed Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. They called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, and HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes. "The evidence is clear that the Israeli military knew, or should have, that Faraj and Khalil were civilians, but attacked them anyway, and then prevented paramedics from rescuing them for hours," said Ramzi Kaiss, HRW's Lebanon researcher.

Israel said it "regrets any harm caused to journalists" and said the journalists were killed "as part of a series of events" during which two Hezbollah military operatives were killed. The reports said there was about two hours between the initial strike that killed the two men Israel said were in Hezbollah and a second strike that targeted a building where the journalists were sheltering. The organisations said deliberate attacks on civilians are war crimes and that both journalists were civilians.

Khalil, 42, worked for the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, while Faraj, 21, was a freelance camerawoman and photojournalist. Both women had covered the war in Lebanon over the last three years. The reports said they drove to al-Tiri to verify reports that Israeli troops had left the village, which lies inside what Israel calls its occupied "security zone" in southern Lebanon. They drove behind a car carrying Ali Nabil Bazzi, a municipal official of Bint Jbeil, and Mohammed Hourani, a friend of the mayor; that car was struck at 2.25pm, killing both men.

According to the reports, Khalil called the Lebanese civil defence, but rescue crews were told to stop at a military checkpoint while awaiting Israeli authorisation through the "mechanism", a deconfliction channel for safe passage. At 3.31pm, a civil defence member urged Khalil to drive out because permission had not arrived, and about nine minutes later Israel struck the journalists' car, injuring both women. Faraj said Israeli quadcopters had circled low overhead, adding: "Glass and debris flew towards us. My ear felt like it burst. She [Amal Khalil] was bleeding heavily from the nose and head and had shrapnel wounds in her arm and thigh; she couldn’t move her leg." The reports said the women crawled into a nearby building, which Israel bombed at 4.25pm, burying both under rubble.

The reports said the Lebanese Red Cross received permission to enter al-Tiri at 5pm and evacuated Faraj, who had a fractured skull, severe injuries to her right leg and eye, and a crushed hand, but could not free Khalil. They said rescuers came under attack from an Israeli quadcopter that dropped a stun grenade, while witnesses heard gunfire and HRW reviewed photographs of bullet holes in ambulances consistent with small arms fire. Israel granted rescue crews permission to re-enter at 8.15pm, and Khalil's body was recovered at 11pm; a Tebnine hospital examination found she probably died at 7pm, after hours trapped under rubble. According to the UN human rights office, Israel has killed at least 15 journalists in Lebanon and 210 in Gaza since 2023.