Rights groups say Israel deliberately targeted Lebanese reporter Amal Khalil

Amal Khalil, a long-time Al-Akhbar reporter covering the Israel-Hezbollah war, was killed in an Israeli strike on a village near the border in April. Rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Legal Agenda and the Union of Journalists in Lebanon assert that the attack was intentional and that Israeli drones hovered low over her and fellow journalist Zeinab Faraj before the strikes. They also contend that Israeli forces denied paramedics access, forcing them to retreat while Khalil lay alive under rubble, ultimately dying from head trauma and cardiac arrest.

Israel’s own preliminary probe maintains the strikes targeted Hezbollah members and will be reviewed by its legal branch. The killing, the eleventh journalist death in Lebanese strikes since 2023, has provoked widespread condemnation in Lebanon and raised accusations of war-crime violations.