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Drone strike hits journalists
An Israeli drone struck a journalist with the Iranian outlet Press TV while he was reporting from southern Lebanon, and Hadi Hoteit survived the attack but was hit by six pieces of shrapnel.
“An artillery strike just targeted the area behind me, as you can see.”
Hoteit described the scene in Kafr Tebnit, saying, "An artillery strike just targeted the area behind me, as you can see."
The Democracy Now! segment also tied the Lebanon attacks to Gaza, stating that "Over 260 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7th, 2023."
It further said the death toll of journalists in Lebanon reached 29 with Israel’s latest and ongoing assault on Lebanon, and it named Ali Shoeib, Fatima Ftouni, and Mohamed Ftouni as among those killed in an Israeli drone strike on their car on March 28.
Irish filmmaker Seán Murray, who investigated killings of four journalists, said the term "journacide" applies to Israel’s military actions because of the "explicit nature of the targeting and killing of journalists."
Funeral and competing claims
In Beirut, the funeral of three Lebanese journalists killed the day before by an Israeli army drone in Jezzine took place on March 29, with Joseph Aoun denouncing a "flagrant crime."
The L'Humanité account identified the victims as Ali Choeib, al-Manar's correspondent in southern Lebanon, Fatima Ftouni of al-Mayadeen, and her brother Mohammed, a cameraman, and said the funeral was organized by a pro-Iranian faction in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
L'Humanité reported that "Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed 210 journalists in the Gaza Strip, and 11 in Lebanon" according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
France 24 described a separate March 29 report on three Lebanese journalists killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, saying Israel claimed to target one of them for alleged links with Hezbollah, a claim disputed by the Lebanese side.
France 24 framed the incident as a violation of international law in a context of intensified strikes that "have also targeted civilians and rescuers."
Pattern, investigations, and pressure
The BBC’s World Press Freedom Day coverage said the Committee to Protect Journalists documented the killing of 15 journalists and media workers in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023.
“accuses Israel of deliberately targeting journalists on the battlefield”
BBC quoted CPJ’s broader accusation that "accuses Israel of deliberately targeting journalists on the battlefield," while the Israeli army denies it.
Sara al-Qudat, CPJ’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, told QNA that CPJ has confirmed that since October 7, 2023, "at least 64 journalists and media workers were directly targeted and killed by Israeli forces" and that it is still investigating other cases.
The QNA report also said the Lebanese Information Minister Paul Marqus stated that the ministry has begun legal action to prepare a file on journalist-targeting and to engage with the United Nations and UN human rights experts, including sending protest memos to UNESCO and the Human Rights Council.
In the same QNA account, Marqus stressed that the repeated direct targeting of journalists constitutes a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and called for an independent and transparent international investigation into all these crimes.
