Journalist Amal Khalil died on Wednesday from her wounds after being trapped for hours under the rubble following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the town of Al-Tayri in southern Lebanon, in an incident that prompted official Lebanese accusations of targeting journalists and obstructing rescue operations.
Lebanese media reported that rescue teams were able to recover Khalil's body after hours of effort in extremely difficult field conditions, while the Ministry of Health had previously announced that she was injured while at the bombing site, before her death was later confirmed.
The incident came in the context of a continuing Israeli escalation in Lebanon, despite the ten-day truce announced by US President Donald Trump, which is supposed to end Friday morning, Beirut local time.
According to local sources, an Israeli airstrike targeted a car in the town of Al-Tiri, killing two people inside. A journalistic team, including Khalil and her colleague Zainab Faraj, was also present at the scene. The bombing injured both journalists; Faraj was taken to the hospital, while Khalil remained trapped under the rubble.
The Israeli army acknowledged carrying out the raid, noting reports of two female journalists being injured, while a source in the Lebanese Red Cross reported that Faraj was rescued, while Khalil could not be reached at the time after the ambulance teams withdrew following a “warning strike.”
Later, Israeli forces launched a second raid targeting the main road between the towns of Al-Tiri and Hadatha, which hindered the arrival of ambulance teams and resulted in a number of injuries, according to the National News Agency.
Reuters also quoted a Lebanese military official as saying that an Israeli drone dropped a bomb on rescue teams that were trying to pull an injured journalist from under the rubble, confirming that the Lebanese army had requested, through a US-led mechanism, permission for the rescue teams to reach the site.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health accused the Israeli army of obstructing relief operations, pointing to a “double violation” represented by targeting the vicinity of the bombing site again, in addition to firing at a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance that was participating in rescue operations.
In contrast, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun followed the developments of the incident, directing the Lebanese Red Cross to take urgent action in coordination with the army and international forces, while the Union of Journalists in Lebanon appealed for immediate intervention to protect journalists and evacuate those trapped.
Aoun reiterated his call to refrain from targeting media workers while they are performing their duties, stressing the need to expedite rescue operations, given the growing fears of repeated targeting of relief teams and journalists in conflict zones.
