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Three Lebanese journalists killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon were laid to rest in an emotional funeral on Sunday, as mourners called for continued efforts to hold the Israeli army accountable for the targeting of civilians.
Al Manar correspondent Ali Shoeib, Al Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother, cameraman Mohamed Ftouni, were driving in the southern town of Jezzine, far from the front line, when the Israeli drone strike hit their car. Lebanon's health minister said that a paramedic and a civilian were killed in a separate strike as they were trying to assist the victims.
Al Manar is a Hezbollah-owned television station, while Al Mayadeen is widely recognised as being editorially aligned with the group and its main backer, Iran.
The Israeli army confirmed it had killed Mr Shoeib, claiming that he was a member of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. It did not mention the killing of the two other journalists or the two civilians killed in the second attack. The army published a photograph of Mr Shoeib wearing a military uniform, which it later admitted was “photoshopped” to Fox News. “Unfortunately there isn’t really a picture of it, it was photoshopped,” the army said.
The latest strike brings the total number of media workers killed since the war resumed on March 2 to five. However, it was the first time Israel had publicly acknowledged attacking a journalist in the country.
Mohamed Oneissi, a rescuer with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Authority, and Mohamed Daher, a civilian, had stopped on the road to help the victims but were killed in a second strike.
An eyewitness told The National that two missiles hit the car, killing Mr Shoeib and Fatima Frouni's brother. “Fatima survived and ran from the scene,” the eyewitness said. The rescuer and the other civilian stopped their car to run towards Ms Ftouni to help her. As she escaped the burning car, more missiles were fired, killing all three. Videos showed projectiles falling and explosions detonating as the car was already on fire.
Journalist Jamal Ezzedine said during the funeral that a mangled protective vest, a helmet marked 'Press', and broadcasting equipment lying beside a charred car were all that remained when he arrived at the site of the Saturday attack.
Israel in Gaza had consistently accused journalists of being Hamas fighters posing as media workers – allegations widely denied by Palestinian journalists and their employers and denounced by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as “deadly smears”.
In its 2025 report, the watchdog said “Israel, in particular, has repeatedly killed journalists whom it subsequently – and in some cases pre-emptively – alleged were militants, without providing credible evidence to support its claims,” the report said.
Journalists are protected under international humanitarian law; deliberately attacking them is considered a war crime, regardless of their political affiliation.
Rules violated
Ms Ftouni, 28, had survived a previous Israeli attack on a guesthouse in 2024 that killed three of her colleagues. Laura Mourani, a TV producer, said "she wanted to continue her life; she loved life, for herself and for others."
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun had condemned Israel’s targeting of the journalists. “Once again, the Israeli aggression is violating the most basic rules of international law, international humanitarian law, and the laws of war by targeting media correspondents, who are ultimately civilians carrying out a professional duty," he said.
"It is a blatant crime that breaches all norms and treaties," he added.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Israel’s repeated violations of the 2024 ceasefire.
The government condemned the move to open a new front in south Lebanon against Israel, saying the militant group had dragged the country into a conflict that is not its own and was “imposed from the outside”.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that Hezbollah’s military operations in the current war with Israel are being directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Since the fighting resumed, Israel further invaded south Lebanon and severed it from the rest of the country in what it says is a military operation against Hezbollah, which prevents hundreds of thousands from returning to their villages. Israel’s renewed assault on Lebanon has killed more than 1,2470 people, according to Lebanese authorities, including more than 124 children.
Call for accountability
The Israeli army had killed more than 10 journalists in Lebanon in the 2023-2024 conflict with Hezbollah, including Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah. Despite media and human rights investigations concluding that he and other journalists filming cross-border shelling were directly attacked by an Israeli tank, Israel has yet to be held accountable.
In the current conflict, Israel has also killed Lebanese freelance journalist Hussain Hamood, for which the CPJ has called for an impartial investigation, and Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programmes at Al Manar.
Human Rights Watch researcher Ramzi Kaiss urged the Lebanese government to take the necessary steps to bring about justice.
He called on the Lebanese state to grant jurisdiction to the ICC to investigate and prosecute crimes, and to begin domestic judicial investigations into these breaches. “In the absence of any form of accountability, the violations we are seeing will continue, and civilians will pay the price,” he said.
The call was echoed at the funeral. “Unfortunately, today, the press vest no longer means anything in the face of the crimes being committed against us and against journalists,” said Zaynal Alawi, a friend of Ms Ftouni.
