Al-Mayadeen journalists killed by Israel in southern Lebanon
Over the past several weeks, Israeli jet have indiscriminately targeted reporters, civilian homes, and even an army base in southern Lebanon
Two journalists and an elderly woman were killed during Israeli airstrikes on 21 November in southern Lebanon.
“We mourn our colleagues, reporter Farah Omar and photographer Rabih Al-Maamari, who were just killed in an Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon,” Al-Mayadeen reported on Tuesday morning.
According to the Lebanese news outlet, the journalists were deliberately targeted by Israel after finishing their live broadcast.
Their murder happened just hours after Laiqa Sarhan, 80, was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a civilian home in the southern Lebanese town of Kfarkela.
Tuesday's airstrikes were preceded by an artillery attack on a base belonging to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in the border town of Wazzani, which reportedly caused significant damage but no casualties.
Israeli jets have deliberately targeted journalists and civilians in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza. In early November, four civilians – three children and their grandmother – were killed during an Israeli airstrike on their family vehicle.
Cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and the Israeli army have gradually intensified since 8 October, one day after resistance factions in Gaza launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
The threat posed by the Lebanese resistance has placed Israel's northern settlements in “crisis mode,” forcing tens of thousands of settlers to abandon the region and creating a downturn for the Israeli economy.
According to Israeli reports, sirens in the north are being activated 24 hours a day as Hezbollah continues to strike the settlements and military sites.
In the face of this, Tel Aviv has reportedly ordered the army "not to ignite a fire in the northern sector while our forces are in Gaza.”
Nonetheless, officials in Washington have expressed concerns that Israeli planners are trying to provoke the Lebanese resistance despite warnings to the contrary.
“Some in the Biden administration are concerned Israel is trying to provoke Hezbollah,” two US and Israeli sources told Axios on Monday, adding that there is a belief some in Tel Aviv want to “create a pretext for a wider war in Lebanon that could draw the US and other countries further into the conflict."