BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed three journalists who were covering the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, their TV stations said.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said its longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed in southern Lebanon. Israel’s military said it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, without providing evidence.
A well-known Lebanese war correspondent, Shoeib had covered southern Lebanon for al-Manar TV for nearly three decades.
Meanwhile, Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said reporter Fatima Ftouni was killed in the same airstrike in the southern district of Jezzine along with her brother Mohammed, a video journalist. She had just been on air with a live report before the strike.
Top officials in Lebanon condemned the strike, with President Joseph Aoun calling it a “flagrant crime that violates all laws and agreements that protect journalists.”
The Israeli army claimed that Shoeib was “operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” It also accused him of maintaining contact with Hezbollah militants and inciting against Israeli troops and civilians, without elaborating.
Al-Manar TV did not respond to the Israeli allegations but described its correspondent as “distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events.”
Israel’s claim mirrored past Israeli military allegations against Palestinian journalists that it targeted in its war against Hamas in Gaza, accusing them of being Hamas militants posing as reporters.
The Israeli military did not mention the two others who died in its statement.
Since the last Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, Israel’s air force has struck Hezbollah’s civilian targets, including the headquarters of Al-Manar TV and the group’s Al-Nour radio station.
Saturday’s strike came days after an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.
The latest deaths bring the number of journalists and media workers killed this year in Lebanon to five.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched about 250 projectiles from Lebanon in the past 24 hours, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines.
The official said most of the projectiles were aimed at Israeli soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and only 23 crossed into Israel.
Death toll grows
The Health Ministry in Beirut said 47 people had been killed and 112 wounded over the past 24 hours. It said 1,189 have been killed since March 2.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said nine paramedics were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday, raising the toll among health care workers to 51.
Israel’s military said nine soldiers were injured in two attacks in southern Lebanon.
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Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed.