Israel’s direct strike on Iran’s national TV station in Tehran is the latest in a pattern of deliberate attacks on journalists, echoing similar hits in Gaza and Lebanon.
The strike hit the station's building during a live broadcast on Monday evening, packed with journalists and technicians at the time. Iranian state media reported casualties.
The attack marks the latest in a series of similar strikes targeting media outlets and journalists in other war zones.
In Gaza, more than 165 journalists have been killed by Israeli fire since the war broke out in October 2023, according to the International Federation of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
At least 10 media workers have been killed by the Israeli army and several others injured in Lebanon, too, official sources in the country say. Many of those were killed in daylight, in direct hits.
No Israeli military officials have been held accountable.
The International Court of Justice condemned what it described as “a continuation of Israel’s decades-long pattern of targeting journalists with impunity”.
Monday’s strike came after the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened in a post on X to make the “residents of Tehran pay the price” after Iran’s missile attacks on Tel Aviv and Haifa. He then wrote that the TV station would “disappear”.
Minutes later, footage showed Iranian TV staff with bloodied hands pointing towards the burning building.
