Ghassan Najjar, a camera operator for the pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV, was killed at around 3 a.m. on October 25, when an Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing 18 journalists from multiple media outlets in Hasbaya, a town in southern Lebanon. The strike also killed Al-Mayadeen broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda and Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV’s camera operator Wissam Kassem.
The journalists had moved to Hasbaya from Marjayoun, which is further south and had been hit by Israeli strikes.
Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary described the attack as a “war crime.”
“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists in the place representing seven media institutions,” he said.
Israeli forces bombed and destroyed the Beirut office of the Hezbollah-affiliated broadcaster Al-Mayadeen in the Jnah neighborhood of Beirut on October 23. The two missile strikes killed one person and injured five others, none of whom have been identified. The channel said it had previously evacuated its offices and “holds Israel responsible for the attack.”
CPJ documented the killing of two Al-Mayadeen journalists, Farah Omar and Rabih Al Maamari, on November 21, 2023.
CPJ in New York emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk to ask if its forces were aware that journalists were in the compound but did not receive a response.
According to the BBC, the IDF said it struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya where “terrorists were operating.”
“Several hours after the strike, reports were received that journalists had been hit during the strike," the IDF said. "The incident is under review.”