Wissam Kassem, camera operator for the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar 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 pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen TV’s camera operator Ghassan Najjar and broadcast engineer Mohammed Reda.
The journalists had moved to Hasbaya from Marjayoun, which is further south and had been hit by Israeli strikes.
On November 25, 2024, Human Rights Watch and the Guardian published independent investigations into the airstrike, with both finding there was no evidence of any fighting, military infrastructure, or military forces in the area at the time of the Israeli strike by a U.S. munition — an indication that the journalists were directly targeted in a potential war crime. "The Israeli military knew or should have known that journalists were staying in the area and in the targeted building," the Human Rights Watch report found.
The day of the attack, Lebanon’s information minister Ziad Makary described the strike 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.
Two days before the Hasbaya strike, on October 23, 2024, Israeli forces bombed and destroyed the Al-Mayadeen office in the Jnah neighborhood of Beirut. 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 in New York emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking if its forces were aware that there were journalists 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.”