Israeli drone strike kills 3 journalists in southern Lebanon

Beirut: An Israeli drone strike killed three Lebanese journalists and injured three more early Friday in southeast Lebanon, according to Lebanese medical and military sources.

The anonymous military sources told Xinhua that an Israeli drone fired two air-to-ground missiles targeting a small hotel where the journalists resided on the western edge of the town of Hasbaya, located on the eastern bank of the Hasbani River in southeast Lebanon.

“Elements from the Civil Defense and the Lebanese Red Cross worked to remove the rubble and transfer the bodies of three dead and three injured to Hasbaya Governmental Hospital,” the sources added. At the targeted hotel, a Xinhua correspondent observed that the Israeli strike destroyed four apartments in the hotel and caused extensive damage to five neighboring apartments. Seven cars belonging to journalists were also destroyed.

“We were sleeping when we heard the sound of a drone flying over the hotel. Within a moment, it fired its first missile at one of the apartments, followed by a second missile at neighboring apartments,” Mohammad Farhat, a correspondent at al-Jadeed TV, told Xinhua.

“The apartments were destroyed, and rubble fell on the sleeping journalists. I narrowly escaped death after the ceiling of the room fell on my bed, and I got up from the rubble without being hurt,” he added.

“We were 18 journalists who had moved to this hotel in Hasbaya three weeks ago, coming from the town of Marjeyoun, where we were covering the events from there,” he said.

“We moved to Hasbaya after an Israeli raid cut off the international road linking the Hasbaya area to the Marjeyoun area, as the Israeli raid created a large hole that closed the road in both directions,” he added.

Hotel owner Anwar Abu Ghaida told Xinhua that the targeted hotel is located in the Wadi al-Hasbani area, a tourist zone with dozens of restaurants, cafes, and chalets.

“There are no military sites or manifestations in this area or its surroundings at all. The aim of the raid, as it seems, is to intimidate journalists, keep them away from the border area, and prevent them from covering and following up on the mutual military operations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army,” he said.

“We worked to transfer the three bodies of the journalists and the three wounded to Hasbaya Hospital, and we also worked to collect the remains of a journalist who was thrown a distance of about 15 meters away from the room in which he was sleeping by the missile explosion,” a source in the Lebanese Red Cross told Xinhua.

Medical sources in Hasbaya Governmental Hospital told Xinhua that the three journalists killed were Ghassan Najjar and Mohammad Reda from the news outlet Al-Mayadeen and Wissam Qassem from Al-Manar TV, and the three journalists wounded were Zakaria Fadel, Hassan Hattit and Ali Shaib.

Since the beginning of the conflict in southern Lebanon, Israeli shelling has killed multiple journalists, including Issam Abdallah, Farah Omar, Rabih Al-Maamari, Hadi Al-Sayed, Kamel Karaki, and so on.

The Israeli military has been conducting an air campaign in Lebanon, dubbed “Arrows of the North,” since Sept. 23 in response to escalating tensions with Hezbollah, hitting targets in southern Beirut and elsewhere and marking a significant intensification of hostilities in the region.

The Israeli army launched its ground offensive against Hezbollah targets in the border area of southern Lebanon in early October.