What happened: Leading rights groups determined that Israel committed war crimes in April when it killed Amal Khalil and injured another journalist in an airstrike in southern Lebanon, The Washington Post reported. The two were in the area to cover destruction caused by hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. At a news conference in Beirut on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said it reviewed evidence that indicates Israel either knew or should have known that Khalil and Zeinab Faraj were civilians. Amnesty International and the advocacy group Legal Agenda reached similar conclusions. Why it matters: These reports are not the first to suggest that Israel committed war crimes when Khalil was killed. Reporters Without Borders released a statement making a similar claim in April. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also said the attack constituted war crimes. In a statement to The Post, the Israel Defense Forces said it is still investigating Khalil’s death but that two men accompanying her were Hezbollah operatives and the strike’s targets. “The IDF does not target journalists and respects freedom of the press,” the statement said. Ramzi Kaiss of Human Rights Watch said that’s not the case. Khalil and Faraj “are the latest victims in a long series of such attacks,” Kaiss said. Nine journalists have been killed in Lebanon this year by Israeli airstrikes, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). ICYMI: Israel’s military kept rescuers from reaching Khalil when she was still alive, according to a reconstruction of her final hours that The Post published in June. |