Amnesty International has concluded that an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on 22 April 2026, which killed the journalist Amal Khalil and seriously wounded the photographer Zeinab Faraj, was a direct attack on two civilians and should be investigated as a war crime.
How the conclusion was reached
The organization based its finding on the testimony of the only survivor of the attack and on accounts from members of the first-responder teams, supported by audiovisual material, coordination records and external reports.
Coordination records matter in reviews of this kind. They document what was known, and by whom, about who was present at a location and in what capacity — the kind of information that bears directly on whether an attacking force knew, or should have known, that the people it struck were civilians.
The legal standard
Under international humanitarian law, journalists are civilians unless they take a direct part in hostilities. Deliberately directing an attack against civilians or civilian objects is prohibited, and a deliberate attack on civilians constitutes a war crime.
Calling for an incident to be investigated as a war crime is a specific demand rather than a rhetorical one. It asks for an independent process capable of establishing individual criminal responsibility for the decision to carry out the strike — something an internal military review, conducted by the same force whose conduct is in question, is not designed to deliver.
What comes next
A finding by a human rights organization does not by itself open a criminal case. It places evidence on the record and puts the question to bodies with jurisdiction, and what follows depends on whether any of them are willing to act. Zeinab Faraj, who survived the attack, remains a direct witness to what happened at the scene.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
