A Lebanese journalist was killed in an Israeli air strike while seeking shelter and then left under the rubble for hours without medical care, officials have told The Independent. Amal Khalil, who worked for the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, was killed in the village of Al-Tayri while covering Israel’s bombing of southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Two strikes are reported to have hit the town in the Bint Jbeil district, killing two people and injuring one. The Lebanese health ministry stated that the Israeli military “pursued Khalil and her colleague, Zeinab Faraj, who had taken refuge from the first raid in a nearby house, targeting the house where they had sought shelter.” When the Lebanese Red Cross arrived to transport the wounded, they were obstructed by Israel, who “fired a stun grenade at the ambulance and targeted it with gunfire,” the ministry said. “They were unable to retrieve Khalil.”
“Amal had gone into the building to shelter, and the military attacked it,” Rida Moussawi, a spokesperson for the Lebanese health ministry, told The Independent. “After that no one was allowed to go back — the teams needed special tools to take her out from under the building. But the [Israeli military] was attacking any vehicle or anything that was going to search for Amal. She was stuck wounded under the rubble for more than seven hours before we were able to reach her.”
Moussawi added that medical aid was further delayed by roads being closed due to bombing and the fact that the Israeli military “attacked the ambulances with guns and grenades.” “How is it permitted that a media person with no weapons is attacked and no one is allowed to help her when she is wounded?” she asked. “And in a ceasefire — what ceasefire is this? This is not the first time that medical convoys have been attacked; we have more than 100 casualties from amongst medical staff.”
Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, condemned the attack and accused Israel of repeatedly targeting journalists in what he described as an “established approach.” “Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes described war crimes,” he said.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) has warned that Israel is engaging in the “deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented.” A record 129 journalists were killed in 2025, according to the CPJ, with two-thirds of those killed by Israel.
The Israeli military said: “Earlier today (Wednesday), IDF troops identified two vehicles in southern Lebanon that had departed from a military structure used by Hezbollah. The terrorists in the vehicles crossed the Forward Defense Line and approached the troops in a manner that posed an immediate threat to their safety. After identifying the individuals as violating the ceasefire understandings and posing an imminent threat, the Israeli Air Force struck one of the vehicles. Subsequently, the structure from which the individuals had fled was also struck. Reports were received that two journalists were injured as a result of the strikes. The IDF is not preventing rescue teams from reaching the area. The details of the incident are under review. It should be noted that the map of the Forward Defense Line has been published and the area has been evacuated. The IDF does not target journalists and acts to mitigate harm to them while maintaining the safety and security of its troops.” After Khalil was pronounced dead, the military added: “As said in the statement, the incident is under review.”
