In yet another crime against journalism in the West Asia region, Israel targeted Lebanese journalists Amal Khalil and Zainab Faraj in a double-tap strike on the town of Al-Tayri in southern Lebanon, on Wednesday, April 22.
While Zainab survived after sustaining a wound to the head, Amal died in the attack carried out against them. The two had taken shelter in a house after an earlier airstrike killed two people in the car traveling in front of them.
According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) blocked rescue teams from reaching the targeted house to recover Amal’s body for several hours by launching intensified airstrikes on the area.
Amal and her media institution were threatened many times before her murder
Amal Khalil, who worked with the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar since 2006, had previously informed local media outlets about receiving direct threats from Israeli phone numbers between August and September 2024.
She was threatened to leave southern Lebanon and stop reporting about the events there, otherwise she would be beheaded, her house would be demolished, or her media outlet would be targeted. The sender even provided her with details about her movements and whereabouts to further intimidate her.
BREAKING
Al-Akhbar correspondent @AmalKhalil83, who has been documenting the devastation across southern Lebanon, received these messages from an Israeli number…
— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) April 22, 2026
Al Akhbar also reported that Amal survived a previous assassination attempt during the 66-day war on September 23, 2004, as she left her family’s house seconds before it was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
The Lebanese newspaper added that the IOF targeted Amal and her colleagues many times between 2023 and 2024, with shells that fell a few meters from them while they were on duty.
UJL calls on the Lebanese state to take action against Israel
The Union of Journalists in Lebanon (UJL) issued a statement strongly condemning the “horrific Israeli war crime”, and renewing its call for the Lebanese state to take the needed action on the following levels:
- Documenting the crimes centrally
- Opening judicial investigations into crimes
- Enacting a law punishing war crimes
- Initiating a request to form a fact-finding committee from the Human Rights Council
- Authorizing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes committed by Israel in Lebanon since October 8, 2023
IFJ also labels the onslaught a war crime
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joined its affiliate UJL in “strongly condemning the targeted assassination of Khalil”.
Moreover, it reiterated that “deliberate attacks on civilians, including journalists, constitute war crimes.”
CPJ calls the attack on Khalil and Faraj a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”
For its part, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed its outrage about the offensive, warning that the “repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”
Direct talks between Tel Aviv and Beirut resume despite the blatant crime
The assassination came less than one week after US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, starting on Thursday, April 16.
It was also launched hours before a new round of direct talks between the Israeli and the Lebanese governments resumed in Washington.
It is worth noting that Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam accused Israel of committing a “war crime” by targeting the two journalists, while President Joseph Aoun urged the international community for a “prompt intervention” to “put an end to it”.
However, for many, Beirut’s engagement in the new round of negotiations, despite the horrific crime against the two journalists, alongside countless other violations, represents a contradiction with Salam and Aoun’s statements, and reflects an approach of concession and surrender.
Read more: Israel escalates its assaults on journalists, health workers, and peacekeepers across Lebanon
On the evening of Thursday, April 23, US President Donald Trump announced a three-week extension to the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
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