Two journalists among eight people died after Israeli air strikes hit Lebanon at the border on Tuesday.
The Lebanese state media and official sources confirm two journalists for a Lebanese TV channel and a senior Hamas official were among the eight people killed by airstrikes from Israel in southern Lebanon on November 21.
The “attack” in the village of Tayr Harfa took the lives of an Al Mayadeen TV reporter and cameraman along with another crew member, the prime minister of Lebanon announced.
IDF declared that it was investigating the event and that it had “operated against a threat” in the same region.
In Kfarkela, to the east, there were also reports of the death of an elderly woman.
Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen said that Israel on Tuesday near the city of Tir Harfa, far from the frontier, had killed two of its intelligencers and a third person at the point where they were videotaped.
Al Mayadeen charged Israel of knowingly targeting the television crew because the channel was known to be pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran’s native military alliance.
In a statement, Prime Minister Najib Mikati of Lebanon claimed that there were “no limits to Israeli crimes” and that the strike was an attempt by Israel to intimidate the media.
IDF responded to the charges, saying that it was aware of a claim regarding journalists, who were killed as a result of (Israeli army) fire.
“This is an area with active hostilities where exchange of fire occurs. Presence in the area is dangerous,” the IDF militant stated.
The IDF has previously said it can not guarantee reporters’ safety in areas of conflict.
Before, aircraft from Israel struck what the service said were” terrorist cells” in the border area as well as targets belonging to the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
However, the clash between the Lebanese Islamist group and Israel’s forces which have constantly dropped airstrikes and mortar shells across the border started from the time of the Israel and Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip six weeks ago.
Al Mayadeen is a Beirut-based Arabic TV channel that said its reporter Farah Omar and cameraman Rabih al-Maamari were “deliberately targeted” as they reported from Tayr Harfa. It is a village about 2km (1.2 miles) from the border.
Their statement explained the scene as Farah and Rabih had just ended a live broadcast at 10 AM (08:00 GMT), giving updates on the latest Israeli bombardment in South Lebanon, when the hit transpired.
Later on, a photograph posted on social media showed the journalists’ bodies on the ground near a burning TV camera mounted on a tripod.
“This attack proves once again that there are no limits to Israeli crimes… its only goal is to silence the media that exposes its crimes and attacks,” said Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
The Israel Defence Forces( IDF) said in a statement that it had operated against trouble posed by a launching area of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation in the Jibbain area, which is 1.5 km east of Tayr Harfa.
Israel’s militant group has earlier claimed that it doesn’t purposely target reporters, but this would appear to be the third attack on journalists working in southern Lebanon since the launch of the war.
A fourth person was identified as 80- time-old Laiqa Sarhan. She was killed and several family members were wounded in a strike further east along the border, according to a report by BBC.
Many houses along with the Sarhan’s in Kfarkela were hit and poorly damaged. Firefighters from original civil defence units rushed to the scene to put out the blaze as ambulances took the wounded family members, including children, to the sanitarium.
In response, Israel claimed the death of six soldiers and three civilians in the northern area while the Lebanese public health ministry spoke of at least 77 deaths of civilians since the conflict started.
