An Israeli attack in south Lebanon on 22 April 2026 killed the journalist Amal Khalil and left the photographer Zeinab Faraj seriously wounded. Amnesty International has said the strike was a direct attack on two civilians and should be investigated as a war crime.
What the finding rests on
The organisation based its conclusion on the account of the survivor of the attack and on statements from members of first response teams, supported by audiovisual material, coordination records and reports produced by outside parties. No further detail about the circumstances of the strike was included in what has been made public.
Journalists are civilians
Under international humanitarian law, journalists working in areas of armed conflict are civilians for as long as they take no direct part in hostilities, and directing attacks against them is prohibited. Intentionally directing attacks against civilians not taking direct part in hostilities is listed among the war crimes set out in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Press credentials confer no protection beyond that owed to any civilian, and take none away either. Cameras, vehicles and other equipment used by reporters remain civilian objects unless they are put to military use.
What the label settles, and what it does not
Calling an incident a possible war crime establishes no one’s criminal responsibility. What it triggers is a duty to investigate: an inquiry that is independent, prompt and effective, able to establish how the attack was planned and carried out and on whose orders, and able to open a route to redress for the victims and their families. That duty includes preserving evidence rather than losing it, and hearing from survivors and from those who reached the scene.
The obligation falls first on the state whose forces are said to have carried out the attack; where it is not discharged, the question passes to international mechanisms. An inquiry of this kind is judged not by whether a file is opened, but by whether those conducting it are independent of those whose conduct is under examination, whether they can reach the site, the witnesses and the records, and whether their conclusions are published.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
