A series of Israeli bombings in the southern Lebanese town of At-Tiri killed reporter Amal Khalil and two others on Wednesday. The rescuers indicated that an Israeli blockade delayed the rescue of the journalist's body for several hours. Beirut assures that it will go to "international forums" to denounce the "crimes against humanity" and "war" committed by Israel.

First modification: 04/23/2026 - 22:21

Lebanon was still immersed in shock this Thursday, April 23, after the deadliest day of the fragile ceasefire with Israel, which began on April 16 and which, in principle, is in force for ten days, was recorded the day before.

In total, five were killed in the Israeli bombings, three of them in a series of attacks in the southern town of At-Tiri, including journalist Amal Khalil, whose body remained under the rubble until early morning, after what Lebanese authorities described as an Israeli blockade of rescue attempts for several hours.

The remains of the Al-Akhbar newspaper reporter were dismissed in an emotional funeral procession in her native village, Baysariyeh, in southern Lebanon.

A coffin covered with the Lebanese flag and white flowers, and with the press helmet on top, was escorted by hundreds of people, some carrying images of the murdered journalist. Through tears, some of the mourners chanted slogans such as "death to Israel."

Earlier, another tribute to Khalil was organized in Beirut, with journalists and citizens staging a sit-in to demand justice for the reporter and demand that international investigations be carried out into the deaths of journalists at the hands of Israel.

What is known about Amal Khalil's death?

On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 22, Khalil – a journalist since 2006 for the Hezbollah-aligned newspaper 'Al Akhbar' – and independent photographer Zeinab Faraj were covering the events near At-Tiri when an Israeli attack hit the vehicle in front of them, killing its two occupants, including the mokhtar, the local community leader.

Given what happened, Khalil and Faraj ran to take refuge in a nearby house, which was also directly attacked by Israel, as confirmed by witnesses, the Lebanese Ministry of Health and a senior military official in that country.

Initially, Lebanese rescuers managed to recover the remains of the two dead from the vehicle and evacuate Faraj, who had a head injury. However, when they returned for Khalil, the Israeli Army launched a stun grenade from a drone and opened fire on the ambulances, blocking access to the damaged building.

According to local media reports, the Lebanese Government requested that rescuers' access be guaranteed through the so-called 'mechanism' led by the US and monitors the ceasefire with Israel and also contacted the UN peacekeeping mission (UNIFIL), without success.

Rescuers were able to return to the scene about four hours after the initial impact. And after another three hours of searching through the rubble, after midnight, they were able to recover the journalist's lifeless body.

Why does Lebanon denounce Israel's "war crimes"?

This Thursday, both the President of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, and the Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, denounced as "war crimes" and "against humanity" the deaths of journalists in Israel's attacks, which since 2023 have killed 27 Lebanese reporters.

"Israel's deliberate and direct attacks against journalists are aimed at hiding the truth about its acts of aggression against Lebanon. These acts constitute crimes against humanity, punishable under international laws and conventions, and should motivate the international community to intervene and put an end to them," said Aoun, in a statement from the Presidency.

For his part, Salam assured: "Israeli attacks against journalists in southern Lebanon while carrying out their professional work are no longer an isolated incident, but a proven pattern that we condemn and reject."

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"Attacking journalists, preventing the access of humanitarian aid teams and even attacking their locations again once these teams have arrived constitute war crimes," the prime minister stressed, referring to the sequence that also occurred in the case of Khalil.

For this reason, the premier maintained in his message in X that Lebanon "will spare no effort to prosecute these crimes before the relevant international forums."

That was one of the demands raised in its statement by the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, which stressed that "the Israeli Army adds to its long and bloody record a new and deliberate war crime." For this reason, he urged the Lebanese State to "document the crimes, open judicial investigations" and authorize the International Criminal Court to investigate the alleged crimes committed by Israel since October 2023.

Israel's version and its history of attacks on journalists

While an Israeli military spokesperson assured AFP that "the facts are under review" – a phrase used repeatedly and that almost never leads to sanctions for excesses by its troops – the Israeli Army, since Wednesday, denied having prevented access to rescue teams, something that is contradicted by witnesses and the Lebanese relief organizations themselves.

In a statement about the attacks in At-Tir, the military entity of the Hebrew State stated that its troops identified two vehicles in southern Lebanon that, according to their version, came from a structure attributed to Hezbollah.

For the Israeli Army, the two vehicles "crossed" the so-called "advanced defense line" - known as the 'yellow line', the imaginary limit established by Israel for its "security zone" within Lebanese territory - and supposedly approached the positions of its soldiers, who interpreted it as an "immediate threat."

According to the military statement, the Israeli Air Force attacked "one of the vehicles" and then bombed "the structure from which" the individuals emerged.

However, the general director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Jodie Ginsberg, recalled that "this is not the first time that Israel prevents emergency services from reaching journalists injured in its attacks."

"Journalists are civilians and are protected under international law. Israel's blatant disregard for these standards - and the international community's failure to hold it accountable - is abhorrent," he said.

Similarly, Sara Qudah, CPJ regional director, stressed that "the culture of impunity that Israel continues to enjoy in Gaza, where there has been no accountability for the targeted killing of journalists, is fueling a similar pattern in Lebanon, with little respect for international law, civil life and press freedom."

Read also “They paint us as targets”: how Israel puts Gaza journalists in the spotlight

Since October 2023, Gazan authorities have recorded the deaths of more than 260 journalists in Israeli attacks in the Strip, while the Lebanese Press Editors' Union estimates that 27 reporters have been killed by the Israeli offensive in the same period, 8 of them in 2026 alone.

Khalil's family denounces a premeditated attack

During the journalist's funeral, her brother, Ali Khalil, remarked that "it was not the first time that the Israelis threatened Amal" and stressed that "three attacks in two hours, or in a half hour, are proof that the Israelis intended to assassinate her."

According to 'Al-Akhbar', Khalil had escaped death in September 2024, when his family home was hit by an Israeli airstrike.

In subsequent interviews with local media, the journalist had indicated that, the same month as the bombing of her house, she began receiving threatening messages from an Israeli telephone number, although their origin was not clear, whether it was someone from the Army, an official or a private individual.

According to Khalil's story, in those messages they told him that they knew his whereabouts and suggested he flee "somewhere else" if he wanted to "keep his head on his shoulders."

With Reuters, EFE and local media

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