Beirut
On Friday, in a press conference with journalists, the Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned Israel for attacking journalists based in southern Lebanon, saying this criminal activity amounts to a “war crime” that will be forwarded to international bodies.
This statement by Mikati occurred after an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon’s Hasbaya area in the early hours of Friday killing three journalists and injuring three more who were in the same building.
In a statement, Mikati asserted that “the Israeli aggressiveness against journalists and reporters in Hasbaya is a new page in the war crimes the Israeli enemy has been committing without fear of any deterrent or an international voice to speak against the ongoing atrocities.”
He stressed that “this intentional violence is designed to frighten the press and conceal the evil and devastation that is taking place.”
The Lebanese prime minister asserted that he has ordered the Foreign Ministry to add this latest crime to the already existing files of Israeli crimes that will be forwarded to the relevant international organisations – “so that the world will not remain idle under this barbarism.”
Earlier on Friday morning, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported: “an air raid carried out by the Israeli enemy at a journalists’ residence in Hasbaya, Nabatiyeh governorate has resulted in the demise of three journalists and injuries to three others.”
The incident is the third occurrence since the commencement of hostilities in October 2023, of attacks on media personnel by Israeli forces within the southern region of Lebanon.
For the past month, Israel has also launched a broad air assault in Lebanon in relation to Hezbollah’s military undertakings that had been going on for a year prior to this invasion, which started as the war between Israel and Hezbollah over the territory of Gaza in June.
This year, Israel escalated the situation by pressing into southren lebanon on oct1
