A Lebanese reporter lost her life in a tragic incident on Wednesday as an Israeli airstrike struck a residence in southern Lebanon where she had taken refuge. Amal Khalil, who was covering the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, was confirmed dead by rescue workers hours after the strike hit. The Al-Akhbar newspaper verified that Khalil, its journalist, perished in the village of al-Tiri while reporting on the ongoing clashes between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
The Lebanese health ministry reported that the initial strike resulted in two casualties, and a subsequent Israeli airstrike targeted the shelter where Khalil and her colleague Zeinab Faraj were seeking safety. Despite rescue workers managing to reach Faraj, who sustained severe injuries, and retrieve the bodies of the first strike’s victims, they faced Israeli fire, forcing them to halt efforts to rescue Khalil.
Khalil remained trapped under debris for several hours until the Lebanese army, civil defense teams, and the Lebanese Red Cross were able to access the site and recover her body late in the night. In response to the incident, Israel’s military asserted that the village residents had violated the ceasefire, endangering their troops, while denying intentionally targeting journalists or obstructing rescue operations.
Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos condemned the killing of journalists as a violation of international and humanitarian laws. Khalil’s untimely death occurred just before the second round of talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington to extend the ceasefire, which was later prolonged by US President Donald Trump for three weeks.
Khalil, a veteran reporter from southern Lebanon, had been covering the region since 2006 for al-Akhbar, focusing on Israeli demolitions in villages hosting Israeli troops. Her tragic demise marks the ninth journalist death in Lebanon this year, alongside over 2,300 casualties and more than a million displaced individuals since the recent Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted.
Earlier on the same day, international press organizations called for pressure on Israel to allow Khalil’s rescue, with concerns raised that hindering such efforts could constitute a war crime. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged swift collaboration between the Lebanese Red Cross, army, and UN peacekeepers in executing the rescue operation.
In a separate incident in late March, three journalists were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. Among the casualties were Ali Shoeib from Al-Manar TV and Fatima Ftouni from Al-Mayadeen TV, along with her brother Mohammed Ftouni. Additionally, Mohammed Sherri, head of political programs at Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, and his wife lost their lives in a separate attack on an apartment in central Beirut.
