By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Smoke billowed over the Lebanese capital Beirut’s southern suburbs early Sunday after Israeli airstrikes amid ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, footage seen by Worthy News showed.
The Hezbollah-run channel Al-Manar reported on the Israeli strikes, saying that the Jrwidh nation had struck Beruit’s suburbs, along with the areas of Baalbek, Zrariyeh, and Al-Jamous.
The attacks came some two hours after residents of the southern suburbs were urged to leave their homes by Israel’s military, which targets Iran-backed Hezbollah, viewed as a terrorist group by Israel and most of its allies.
Israel carried out several air strikes in the area last week, and over the weekend, when Israel struck Beirut’s suburbs and an area near the border with Syria, killing three journalists and injuring three others, Worthy News reported.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that “At about 3 a.m. [local time] on [Friday] October 25, an airstrike hit a compound housing 18 journalists from multiple media outlets in south Lebanon’s Hasbaya area, killing pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV’s camera operator Ghassan Najjar, broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda, and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV’s camera operator Wissam Kassem.”
The three injured were reported to be camera operator Hassan Hoteit and assistant camera operator Zakaria Fadel of the media production company Isol and Al Jazeera camera operator Ali Mortada, the CPJ said in a statement obtained by Worthy News.
“CPJ is deeply outraged by yet another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time hitting a compound hosting 18 members of the press in south Lebanon,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York.
TARGETING JOURNALISTS
“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated, and the perpetrators must be held to account,” the advocacy group added.
Israel’s military has denied deliberately targeting journalists and accuses Iran’s proxies, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, of hiding among civilians to use them as “human shields.”
Israel also says it fights at some seven fronts for its existence and wants to prevent another October 7, 2023 massacre when 1,200 people were killed in the Jewish nation by Hamas.
That’s why Israel’s military said it blew up a tunnel on Saturday belonging to Hezbollah’s Radwan Forces for their “Conquer the Galilee” plan, aimed at killing more people than Hamas did on October 7, last year.
In the hideout, IDF troops located bunk beds, storage cabinets, food supplies, infrastructure for long-term stays, a large amount of equipment, weapons, and launch positions.
“During these limited and localized ground operations in southern Lebanon, our troops also located four weapons storage facilities with rockets, mortars, [rocket-propelled grenades] RPGs, and more,” the IDF added.
With tensions rising, sirens wailed in Israel’s Western and Upper Galilee area, where two drones were identified crossing from Lebanon “and were intercepted over open areas,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said early Sunday.
Yet the incident underscored broader concerns that clashes between Israel and Hezbollah will continue despite international calls for a ceasefire.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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