A Guardian investigation found that Israel used US munitions to kill three journalists and wound three others in an October 25 attack in southern Lebanon, which legal experts described as a possible war crime .
On October 25, at 3:19 a.m., an Israeli plane fired two bombs at a house where three journalists were staying: cameraman Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohammad Reda, of the pro-Hezbollah media Al Mayadeen, as well as cameraman Wissam Qassem, of Al Manar media, also close to the Gaza government.
The three died while sleeping during the attack, during which three other journalists from different media outlets who were nearby were also injured. There was no fighting in the area before or at the time of the attack.
The Guardian visited the site, interviewed the owner and journalists present at the time of the attack, analyzed shrapnel found at the site of the attack and geolocated Israeli surveillance equipment within range of the attacks. positions of journalists.
Based on the Guardian’s findings, three international humanitarian law experts said the attack could constitute a war crime and called for further investigation.
“Everything indicates that this was a deliberate attack against journalists: a war crime. It was clearly marked as a place for journalists to stay,” said Nadim Houry, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative.
Following the attack, the Israeli military said it had hit a “Hezbollah military structure” and that “terrorists were inside the structure.” Hours after the attack, the Israeli military said the attack was “under investigation” following reports that journalists had been hit in the attack.
The Guardian found no evidence of the presence of Hezbollah military infrastructure at the site of the Israeli attack, nor that any of the journalists were other than civilians. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for clarification on which journalists were Hezbollah militants or the status of the investigation into the attack.
“Ghassan was not a member of Hezbollah, he was a member of the press. He never had a weapon, not even for hunting. His weapon was his camera,” said Sana Najjar, wife of Ghassan Najjar, in conversation with The Guardian. Ghassan left behind a three and a half year old son.
The coffin of one of the journalists, Qassem, from Al Manar, was buried wrapped in a Hezbollah flag. This practice is a tribute to individuals or families who declare political support for the group, but does not indicate that the journalist played a political or military role within Hezbollah.
Regardless of their political affiliation, the killing of journalists is illegal under international humanitarian law unless they are actively participating in military activities.
Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said: “It is a dangerous trend, already seen in Gaza, for journalists to be linked to military operations due to their perceived political affiliation or inclination. and then apparently become the target of attacks. This is not compatible with international law.
A day after Israel began its ground offensives in Lebanon, a group of about 18 journalists arrived in October at a house in Hasbaya, in the south of the country. The Israeli advance had forced them to leave Ebl al-Saqi, a town in southern Lebanon where they had remained for the past 11 months to cover hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.
They chose this predominantly Druze town because of its lack of affiliation with Hezbollah and because it had never been the target of Israeli attacks before, according to Yumna Fawaz, a journalist for the Lebanese channel MTV Presents the Day. of the attack.
The guest houses were owned by a Lebanese American, Anoir Ghaida, who said he searched the journalists’ home and car after the attack “like someone looking for a needle in a haystack,” but having found “nothing suspicious”.
Journalists used the houses as a base for 23 days, traveling to a hilltop 10 minutes’ drive away to film the hostilities and provide live coverage each day. From the hill, one could see the border towns of Shebaa and Khiam, where fighting between Hezbollah and Israel continued. They drove cars marked “Press” and wore bulletproof vests and helmets with press symbols.
The hilltop was within the direct line of sight of three Israeli watchtowers, all located approximately 10 km from the scene. Israeli surveillance towers are typically equipped with “Speed-er” cameras, capable of automatically tracking targets up to 10 km away, as well as video, thermal and infrared imaging capabilities.
Other journalists from the group said the presence of Israeli reconnaissance drones was “constant” both at the scene and above Hasbaya’s home during his 23-day stay there.
“The night of the attack, we were sitting in front of the houses and the drone was flying very low above us,” said Fatima Ftouni, an Al-Mayadeen journalist who lived a few houses away from her colleagues when they were attacked. .
Ftouni went to bed, but was awakened a few hours later by the sound of an explosion. He emerged from the rubble of the roof of his house and looked for his helmet. His bulletproof vest had been shredded by the force of the explosion. He left the smoke-filled room and found his companions dead on the floor.
The house where Najjar, Reda and Qassem were sleeping had been directly hit by a bomb dropped by an Israeli plane, and another bomb had fallen next to the structure.
Remnant munitions found at the site revealed that at least one of the weapons was a 500-pound MK-80 series bomb guided by an American-made JDAM, a kit that converts large dummy bombs into precision-guided weapons .
The fragments were verified by Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army bomb disposal specialist, a second weapons expert from the Omega Research Foundation, and a third weapons expert who was not authorized to speak to the media.
A piece of the JDAM’s fin, manufactured by Boeing, was found, along with part of the internal control section that moves the fin. A cage code on the rest of the control section revealed that it was produced by Woodward, a Colorado-based aerospace company. Neither Boeing nor Woodward responded to requests for comment.
The use of at least one precision-guided bomb would imply that the Israeli army had chosen as a target the house where the three journalists were located before the attack. The presence of drones and surveillance towers above the group of clearly identified journalists over the previous 23 days suggests that Israeli forces knew their location and their status as members of the press.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the Hasbaya attack, but said the United States “has consistently urged Israel to ensure the protection of civilians, including journalists.”
Under U.S. law, if a country uses U.S.-supplied weapons to commit a war crime, military aid to that country must be suspended. Despite evidence of several instances in which Israel used US munitions to commit possible war crimes, US military aid to Israel has remained unchanged.
Israel has killed six journalists in Lebanon and at least 122 in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, 2023, the deadliest period for journalists in the past four decades, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
According to Irene Khan, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Israeli authorities are “blatantly ignoring” their international legal obligations to protect journalists: “The Guardian story What happened in southern Lebanon coincides with a series of killings and attacks by Israeli forces against journalists in Gaza. The targeted killings, the excuse that the attacks were directed against armed groups without providing any evidence to support these claims, the lack of thorough investigations, all appear to be part of a deliberate strategy by the Israeli army aimed at silencing critical information about the war. and hinder the documentation of possible international war crimes.
Despite statements that it would review some attacks on journalists, the Israeli military has yet to release any information regarding investigations into journalist killings. “It was the silence of the international community that allowed this to happen,” Ftouni said.
Attacks on journalists in Hasbaya and other areas of southern Lebanon have had a chilling effect on Lebanese media professionals, who no longer know where to work safely.
Meanwhile, the journalists’ families are unable to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones.
“He was truly a great man. I know he looked so big, but he was actually a nice man. And he was so funny,” Najjar said of her husband Ghassan: “I still can’t believe Ghassan is dead. I’m still waiting for the door to open and come in. “He promised me that one day we would grow old and move to the south together, but now he stayed there and I will stay here, in Beirut, forever.”
