Compound in ruins after Israeli strike kills journalists in southeast Lebanon

(25 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hasbaya, Lebanon - 25 October 2024
1. Various of damaged vehicle marked "press" covered in dust and rubble
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hassan Hoteit, journalist for Cairo TV injured in Israeli strike:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 1 AND 3++
"We were sleeping at around 3:30 or it was approaching 4:00 in the morning, I don't exactly know what time it was. Suddenly, I just feel a huge weight falling on me. The way I was sleeping - I injured my left leg because I was sleeping on my left side. When the (inaudible) and walls fell, I couldn't move at all. I was breathing the dust and I waited for someone to find me. After a minute, then two and three minutes passed, I thought that's it. No one will come - it's 3:00 in the morning."
3. Various of press vest inside wreckage
STORYLINE:
An Israeli airstrike on a compound housing journalists in southeast Lebanon killed three media staffers on Friday.

Outside of now-collapsed buildings rented by various media outlets, cars marked "PRESS" lay covered in dust and rubble after the strike, Associated Press footage showed.

The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike.

"Suddenly, I just feel a huge weight falling on me," said Hassan Hoteit, a journalist for Cairo TV who was injured in the strike.

"I waited for someone to find me. After a minute then two and three minutes passed, I thought that's it. No one will come," Hoteit said, speaking from a hospital bed.

The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its staffers — camera operator Ghassan Najar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida — were among the journalists killed early Friday.

Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was also killed in the airstrike on the Hasbaya region.

Al-Mayadeen’s director Ghassan bin Jiddo alleged that the Israeli strike on a compound housing journalists was intentional and directed at those covering elements of its military offensive. He vowed that the Beirut-based station would continue its work.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary said the journalists were killed while broadcasting what he called Israel’s crimes, and noted they were among a large group of members of the media.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.

The Hasbaya region has been spared much of the violence along the border and many of the journalists now staying there have moved from the nearby town of Marjayoun that has been subjected to sporadic strikes in recent weeks.

Earlier in the week, a strike hit an office belonging to Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

Lebanon’s Health Minister said Friday that 11 journalists have been killed and eight wounded since exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border in early October 2023.

Israel launched a ground invasion Oct. 1, after trading fire with the Hezbollah militant group for much of the past year.

Lebanese health officials reported another day of intense airstrikes and shelling Thursday, which they said killed 19 people over 24 hours and raised the overall Lebanese death toll to 2,593 since October 2023.

AP video shot by Mohammad Zaatari

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