Overview
- Amal Khalil, a longtime Al-Akhbar correspondent, was killed in a sequence of Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on April 22, 2026 while reporting with colleague Zeinab Faraj who was wounded.
- On August 6, Amnesty International concluded there are reasonable grounds to treat the strike that killed Khalil as a potential war crime and shared drone, satellite, audiovisual and weapons analysis to support that finding.
- Human Rights Watch, Legal Agenda and the Union of Journalists in Lebanon joined Amnesty at a Beirut briefing to say evidence shows Israeli drones monitored the two journalists before their vehicle and the building they sheltered in were struck and that medic access was repeatedly blocked.
- The Israeli military said its preliminary inquiry found the strikes targeted Hezbollah members and denied deliberately targeting journalists and added the probe will be forwarded to its legal branch for review.
- Rights groups and the Committee to Protect Journalists renewed calls for independent, transparent investigations and urged international actors to press for accountability to address a pattern of journalist deaths and limited prosecutions since October 2023.