Rights groups call Israel’s killing of journalist Amal Khalil a ‘war crime’

Lebanese and international rights groups have accused Israel of intentionally targeting and killing a Lebanese journalist and obstructing medical workers from reaching her as she lay critically wounded.

Amal Khalil, a veteran reporter for the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar, was killed in the attack on April 22 in al-Tiri in southern Lebanon. Photojournalist Zainab Faraj was critically injured.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Lebanese rights group The Legal Agenda released the findings of separate investigations into the attack.

HRW said the Israeli strikes “included apparently deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, which would make them war crimes”.

Amnesty decried the “direct attack on civilians which should be investigated as a war crime”.

Both groups said the Israeli army “knew or should have known” that the women were civilians, noting that Israeli drones were at the attack site.

The Legal Agenda said its investigation found that the Israeli military’s actions “constitute war crimes and grave violations of international humanitarian law”.

Israeli forces bombed a building where both journalists had taken shelter after being forced to abandon their vehicle because of earlier Israeli strikes on or near their car. The Israeli military targeted the building, despite an appeal from the Lebanese Red Cross, relayed through the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), to evacuate the journalists from there, HRW’s report said.

The rights group said Israeli quadcopters seem to have been tracking Faraj and Khalil – whom it assessed the Israeli military knew or should have known were civilians – as they sheltered and were later attacked.

“The Israeli military says it does not target journalists, but the facts and evidence show that it has repeatedly done so. Amal Khalil and Zainab Faraj are the latest victims in a long series of such attacks,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW. “Israeli forces’ continued killing of journalists shows a brazen willingness to commit atrocities without any fear of consequences.”

HRW also said the Israeli military apparently impeded paramedics who tried to get to the journalists after the attack. According to the report, Israeli forces fired a stun grenade, forcing Lebanese Red Cross personnel to retreat before rescuing or treating Khalil.

The rights group cited witness statements and photos indicating that a Lebanese Red Crescent ambulance responding to the scene appears to have been hit by “small arms fire”.

‘Conceal the truth’

The Israeli army at the time of the attack claimed it struck a vehicle “that had departed from a military structure used by Hezbollah”, and that “subsequently, the structure from which the individuals had fled was also struck”. It denied its forces prevented rescue teams from reaching the area.

Amnesty said the Israeli army told it that “the incident underwent a preliminary review and relevant lessons were implemented accordingly”, adding that it “regrets any harm caused to journalists”.

At the time, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of war crimes over the killing of journalists, which he said was part of an effort to “conceal the truth of its aggressive acts against Lebanon”.

Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused of illegal attacks targeting journalists in Lebanon and Gaza.

In 2025, Israel was responsible for more than two-thirds of journalists killed globally – 84 out of 129 – according to cases tracked by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Israel was also overwhelmingly responsible that year for targeted killings, which the CPJ classifies as “murder”, carrying out 38 of 47 crimes recorded by the organisation.

Israel’s attacks on journalists have continued this year, killing at least eight Palestinian journalists, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and nine journalists in Lebanon, according to a tally from the CPJ.

“Lebanon should put an end to impunity for Israel’s abuses and other countries should press for accountability and use their leverage over Israeli authorities to prevent more crimes,” said Kaiss.

Amnesty’s Heba Morayef said that “the impunity enjoyed by Israeli forces for the killing of journalists and other civilians in Lebanon over the past three years has enabled the Israeli military to continue with its unlawful air strikes, including direct attacks on civilians”.