Three Lebanese journalists have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, according to officials.
Per reporting from Al Jazeera, the attack targeted a clearly marked press vehicle that claimed the lives of Al-Mayadeen reporters Fatima Ftouni and her brother/colleague, Mohammed Ftouni, as well as Ali Shoeib, a journalist who worked for Al-Manar, a satellite television station operated by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed political party and paramilitary group.
While the Israeli military claimed Shoeib was a “terrorist” and “operated for years under the guise of a journalist,” it did not provide any evidence to support this description. Additionally, the IOF did not comment on the killings of the Ftounis.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the strike a “brazen crime” that violated the “most basic rules” of international law by targeting reporters, “who are ultimately civilians performing a professional duty.”
Per the BBC, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam likewise condemned the attack in a statement, calling it a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a clear breach of the rules that guarantee the protection of journalists in times of war.”
The Lebanese government will file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council, according to Lebanon’s Minister of Information, Paul Morcos, the New York Times reported.
Israel has continued its aerial and ground offensive in Lebanon after Hezbollah launched missiles at the state in what it said was retaliation for the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Since the conflict’s inception, more than 1,100 civilians, including 120 children and 42 paramedics, have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, and more than a million individuals have been displaced.
Per a 2025 Committee to Protect Journalists finding, more media workers were killed that year than in any other year since the rights organization began collecting data more than three decades ago. The committee found that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings in both 2025 and 2024.
In a statement, CPJ regional director Sara Qudah said, “CPJ is investigating this latest attack on journalists in Lebanon which has been an increasingly deadly zone for journalists, despite their status as civilians who must not be targeted. We have seen a disturbing pattern in this war and in the decades prior of Israel accusing journalists of being active combatants and terrorists without providing credible evidence. Journalists are not legitimate targets, regardless of the outlet they work for.”
According to the organization, CPJ has documented the killing of at least four other journalists in the region since the outbreak of the Iran War in late February. The targeting of the three journalists comes two days after the killing of the photojournalist/camera operated Hussain Hamood, and nine days following the killing of Al-Manar head of programming Mohammed Sherri, who was slain in an Israeli strike in central Beirut. As such, many in Lebanon are concerned Israel is implementing similar tactics deployed in Gaza, like the deliberate targeting of civilians, journalists and paramedics.
