BEIRUT, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Israel killed three journalists in an airstrike on a car carrying four people in Jezzine, southern Lebanon, at noon Saturday, Lebanese officials said. All four passengers died.
The journalists were identified as Al-Manar correspondent Ali Shoaib, Al-Mayadeen reporter Fatima Ftouni, and cameraman Mohammad Ftouni.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned the strike, calling it a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. He said journalists are civilians protected under the Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council Resolution 1738, which prohibit attacks on journalists not directly participating in hostilities.
Aoun urged international bodies to intervene to stop attacks on Lebanese territory and offered condolences to the victims' families and the media community.
The Israeli military said Saturday that Shoaib was a member of Hezbollah's Radwan Force intelligence unit who operated under the guise of a journalist for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar network. It provided no evidence.
Moreover, at least 10 more people were killed, and dozens were wounded in Israeli airstrikes and shelling across southern Lebanon, Lebanese officials and media reported.
Five Syrian nationals were killed and eight others wounded in a dawn airstrike on the village of Hanine, near the Lebanon-Israel border. Civil Defense teams recovered the bodies and transported the injured to hospitals in Tyre.
In a separate strike, one paramedic was killed, and four others were wounded when an Israeli airstrike hit a Civil Defense ambulance in Kfar Tebnit, according to Lebanon's Public Health Emergency Operations Center.
Another two people, a father and his son, were killed when their car was struck while traveling from Rmeish to Debel. Another person was killed in a strike on a motorcycle in Haddatha. Later, one person was killed and 17 others wounded in an airstrike on Sarafand in the Sidon district, the Health Ministry said.
In Beirut's southern suburbs, an Israeli projectile carrying warning leaflets landed on a balcony in the Jnah area. No strike followed.
Hezbollah said it launched multiple attacks on Israeli military sites, troop gatherings and settlements in northern Israel on Friday and Saturday, including rockets, artillery, and drones.
The group also claimed it ambushed an Israeli force near Baydar al-Faqaani in Taybeh after midnight, inflicting heavy casualties. Witnesses reported seeing wounded evacuated.
Cross-border fighting has continued since March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel for the first time since a ceasefire on Nov. 27, 2024, prompting intensified Israeli airstrikes across southern and eastern Lebanon. Enditem.
