Devendra Kumar
The tense situation along the Lebanon-Israel border took a devastating turn when an Israeli strike killed two journalists from the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, a Pan-Arab broadcaster with ties to the Lebanese militant group Hizbullah. The strike also claimed the life of a Lebanese civilian. According to the TV channel, the journalists, Farah Omar and Rabih Maamari, were directly targeted in an air strike, with Ghassan bin Jiddo, the director of Al-Mayadeen TV, describing it as “not a coincidence”. Bin Jiddo, visibly emotional, said that the killed journalists join “the martyrs of Gaza” and that a man from the village, identified as Hussein Akil, was also killed.
The Israeli military claimed that its soldiers took action against an alleged threat posed by a weapons launching area in southern Lebanon, saying that the presence in the area is dangerous and that exchanges of fire occur frequently. In a statement earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said its aircraft struck three armed terrorist cells in the area, in addition to Hizbullah infrastructure.
The strike on the journalists and the civilian comes just days after the Israeli government blocked Al-Mayadeen TV news channel from broadcasting in Israel. The Lebanese information minister, Ziad Makary, has condemned the strike as “outrageous”. The Israeli military is currently reviewing the incident.
Meanwhile, an Israeli drone strike in the same region killed four members of Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, according to a Palestinian official and a Lebanese security official. A Hamas official in Lebanon confirmed that there were “a number of martyrs from the Palestinian resistance” without providing further details.
The situation along the Lebanon-Israel border has been volatile, with daily exchanges of fire between Hizbullah members and Israeli troops. The clashes began after a deadly attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7th, which killed over 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza, killing over 12,700 people.