Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International each concluded on 6 August 2026 that an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon last April, which killed the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and gravely wounded the photographer Zeinab Faraj, hit civilians and amounts to an apparent war crime that should be investigated.
Khalil, a veteran correspondent for the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, was covering hostilities in the south when strikes hit the town of Tiri on 22 April 2026. Faraj, a Lebanese freelance journalist working alongside her as a photographer, survived with serious injuries.
Three strikes in one afternoon
The first strike, at around 2:30 p.m., hit a car travelling ahead of the two journalists, killing Ali Bazzi and Mohammad al-Hourani, both of whom they knew. The blast forced Khalil and Faraj to abandon their own vehicle and shelter beside a nearby building. It was the first of three strikes that day.
What the findings rest on
Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs and video, took witness accounts, and examined a deconfliction request — the formal notification used to obtain safe passage to a site during hostilities — sent by the Lebanese Red Cross to the Israeli military through the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, in order to reach the location after the first strike. On that basis the organisation concluded that the Israeli military knew, or should have known, that the two women were civilians.
Amnesty International arrived at a similar conclusion from a different evidentiary base: the account of the sole survivor and of first responders, supported by audiovisual material, coordination records and external reporting.
Human Rights Watch situates the case within a longer pattern, describing Khalil and Faraj as the most recent casualties in a series of attacks on journalists, and saying the evidence shows Israeli forces have repeatedly struck reporters despite official statements that journalists are not targeted.
Where accountability could run
Lebanon is not a party to the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch urged the Lebanese government to join the Rome Statute and to lodge a declaration accepting the court’s jurisdiction over events dating back at least to 7 October 2023. It also called on other governments to press for accountability and to use their influence with the Israeli authorities to prevent further crimes.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
