The Israeli military deliberately hunted Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and killed her. Thus, they committed a war crime in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the ICC. This is reported by Al Jazeera.
The incident occurred on April 22, 2026 in the village of At-Tiri in southern Lebanon. The journalist of the newspaper Al-Akhbar Amal Khalil was killed, and the photojournalist Zeinab Faraj was seriously injured.
The women came to the village to highlight the consequences of the IDF strike on it. First, an Israeli drone strike reportedly hit a civilian car in front of them, killing two people. Amal and Zeinab managed to take refuge in a nearby house, but about two hours later this building was also hit.
Rescuers (including the Red Cross) could not reach the wounded for several hours. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, an ambulance was shot at and a stun grenade was thrown. As a result, the body of Amal Khalil was removed from the rubble only after almost 7 hours.
Back in 2024, Amal Khalil received a WhatsApp message from an Israeli number, where she was threatened with death and advised to leave Lebanon.
The situation has caused a wave of condemnation from international organizations, while Israel's position is expectedly different.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called the incident a "blatant war crime," saying that the attacks on journalists were not an accident, but an "established method."
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also condemned the incident, calling it a serious violation of international humanitarian law and stressing that a deliberate attack on journalists could qualify as a war crime.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denies that it deliberately targeted journalists. According to their version, two vehicles were seen leaving the Hezbollah "military facility". One of them allegedly approached the Israeli soldiers, creating a threat, after which he and the building (in which the journalists took refuge) were struck. Israel also states that it did not interfere with the rescuers, and the details of the incident are being verified.
It is noted that this happened during the period of the formal truce between Israel and Lebanon.
Since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict, this is far from the first case of the death of journalists in Lebanon. According to CPJ, Amal Khalil became at least the seventh victim.
