Israeli Airstrike On Journalist Compound Kills 3 TV Staffers

An Israeli airstrike on a compound housing journalists in southeast Lebanon has killed three media staffers, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Friday.

The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV said two of its staffers were among the journalists killed early Friday. Al-Manar TV of Lebanon's Hezbollah group said its camera operator Wissam Qassim was killed in the airstrike on the Hasbaya region, that has been spared much of the fighting along the border so far.

Al-Mayadeen said camera operator Ghassan Najar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida died. Local news station Al Jadeed aired footage from the scene - a collection of chalets that had been rented by various media outlets - showing collapsed buildings and cars marked PRESS covered in dust and rubble.

The Israeli army did not issue a warning prior to the strike. Earlier in the week, a strike hit an office belonging to Al-Mayadeen on the outskirts of Beirut's southern suburbs, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Several journalists have been killed since near-daily exchange of fire began along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, 2023.

In November 2023, two journalists for Al-Mayadeen TV were killed in a drone strike. A month earlier, Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded other journalists from France's international news agency, Agence France-Presse, and Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV.