Israeli strike kills two reporters, third person in south Lebanon

An Israeli strike killed two journalists working for a Lebanese TV channel and a third person near the border with Israel on Tuesday, Lebanese state media and the channel, Al Mayadeen, said.

Al Mayadeen said the strike, near the town of Tir Harfa, about a mile from the Israeli frontier, had deliberately targeted the TV crew because the channel was known to be pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran’s regional military alliance.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati also blamed Israel, saying in a statement that the strike was an Israeli attempt to silence the media.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah broke out along the border after Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

The Hamas attack killed 1,200 Israelis, according to Israeli tallies. Israel in response has bombarded and invaded the Gaza Strip, killing at least 13,300 people according to the territory’s Hamas-run government.

Israel-Lebanon border violence has escalated, raising Western fears of a widening war in the Middle East that could draw in both the United States and Iran.

It is the worst violence at the border since Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006 and has so far killed more than 70 Hezbollah fighters, 13 Lebanese civilians, seven Israeli troops and three Israeli civilians.

Al Mayadeen named its killed journalists as Farah Omar, a correspondent, and Rabie al-Memari, a camera operator.

The third person killed in the strike was Hussein Aqil, who was at the site where the crew was filming. Al Mayadeen told Reuters he was not working with the channel.

More than 50 journalists have been killed since Oct. 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, most of them in Gaza.

(Reuters)