Funeral held for three journalists killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon

Lebanese government calls killings a ‘blatant war crime’ while Israel says primary target was a Hezbollah ‘terrorist’

A funeral has taken place in Lebanon for three journalists killed by an Israeli strike on Saturday, after the Lebanese government called the killings a “blatant war crime”.

Ali Shoeib, of the Hezbollah-owned al-Manar television station, and Fatima Ftouni and her brother and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, of the pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, were killed in the strike targeting their car.

Israel claimed the attack shortly afterwards, saying the target was Shoeib, whom it accused of being a Hezbollah “terrorist” in an intelligence unit who had reported on the locations of Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military provided no further evidence to support the claim and made no comment on the deaths of the other journalists.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral, where the bodies of Shoeib and Fatima Ftouni were draped in their channels’ logos and with bouquets of flowers.

“Fatima and Ali were heroes,” a relative of Ftouni’s who gave only his first name, Qassem, told Agence France-Presse.

Shoeib was a well-known war correspondent in Lebanon, where he reported for al-Manar for nearly three decades. His death was met with a wave of condolences from audiences and journalists in Lebanon, many of whom said he was considered a mentor figure in Lebanese journalism.

Fatima Ftouni had also been reporting from the frontlines of the Israel-Hezbollah war in recent days, filming in front of battles in the town of Taybeh, south Lebanon. Her own family had been killed in Israeli strikes weeks earlier.

Eighteen months earlier, she and her colleagues were struck by an Israeli bomb while they were sleeping in a hotel in south Lebanon. Ftouni survived but two of her colleagues did not. Commenting on the deaths of her colleagues at the time, Ftouni said: “It is the silence of the international community that let this happen.”

The three journalists were struck as they were driving in Jezzine, a district in south Lebanon far from the frontlines. Local television showed at least four missiles were shot at the car, and footage appeared to show a missile being fired between the journalists’ car and bystanders as the latter tried to approach and help. Video of the aftermath showed singed press jackets and helmets, as well as tripods and microphones that had been pulled from the car.

The Israeli military claimed Shoeib was a member of Hezbollah’s Radwan force, the most elite unit of the pro-Iran armed group, which specialises in cross-border raids. It said Shoeib’s contact with senior members of Hezbollah and his work documenting the location of Israeli forces was evidence he was a military member of the group.

International law says that regardless of political affiliation, journalists are considered civilians and targeting them is a war crime. Eight out of the nine journalists killed by Israel in Lebanon since 13 October 2023 worked for Hezbollah-affiliated outlets, and analysts have suggested the killings are part of Israel’s strategy of attacking the civilian wings of the group.

Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun, described the journalists as “civilians doing their professional duty”. Writing on X, he said: “It is a brazen crime that violates all treaties and norms through which journalists enjoy international protection in war.”

The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told the public broadcaster France 3 on Sunday that journalists working in war zones “must never be targeted, including when they “have links with parties to the conflict”.

The Israeli military has made similar claims about several journalists it killed in Gaza, some of whom it said also worked as Hamas operatives, including Anas al-Sharif, a correspondent for Al Jazeera. Israel has killed more than 220 journalists since 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Lebanon’s minister of information, Paul Morcos, said the killing of the three journalists on Saturday “constitutes a deliberate and blatant war crime against the media and the mission of journalism”. He said the Lebanese government had compiled a list of Israeli attacks against healthcare workers and media personnel, which it would submit to the UN and the EU.

The fighting in Lebanon started when Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel on 2 March after the US-Israeli assault on Iran, triggering an Israeli aerial campaign and invasion. Israeli attacks have killed 1,189 people and wounded 3,427 in Lebanon, including 48 healthcare workers, according to the Lebanese ministry of health. Three Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon and one person in northern Israel have been killed by Hezbollah fire.