Rights groups accuse Israel of targeting and killing Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil

BEIRUT (AP) — Global and Lebanese rights groups on Thursday accused Israel of intentionally targeting and killing Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil earlier this year and obstructing medical workers from reaching her as she lay critically wounded.

Khalil, a longtime correspondent for Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar in southern Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli strike in April in the village of al-Tiri, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border with Israel, while covering the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. She was one of 11 journalists killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since 2023.

Khalil’s colleague, freelance photographer and video journalist Zeinab Faraj , was wounded in the strikes.

International rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, alongside Lebanese watchdog group Legal Agenda and the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, told reporters in a joint press conference in Beirut on Thursday that they reached this conclusion after corroborating information from photos, videos, satellite imagery, testimonies from eyewitnesses and officials, and conversations over WhatsApp.

They also said Israel was aware of Khalil and Faraj’s presence and that Israeli drones were flying low over the two before they took refuge in a building and that the Israeli military should have been aware that they were women and journalists.

The rights groups said Israel received multiple calls from Lebanese authorities and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, to allow paramedics to access the site throughout the day.

“These strikes are considered direct attacks on civilians, which are considered war crimes,” said Amnesty Lebanon Researcher Sahar Mandour. “This does not change based on the Israeli military classification of this area as a no-go zone. It is a civilian area.”

The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday its own preliminary inquiry concluded that Khalil was killed in a series of strikes aimed at Hezbollah members, and once the investigation is completed, it will be sent to its legal branch for review.

Israel has previously denied targeting journalists.

The April strikes took place less than a week after a fragile truce went into effect between Israel and Hezbollah, and the journalist was deployed to report on the situation in battered villages. Her death was met with outrage across Lebanon.

The rights group said Thursday an initial Israeli strike killed two people in a car as they drove in front of the two journalists. A second strike hit the journalists’ car after they pulled over and took refuge by the entrance of a building nearby, lightly wounding them. They made their way inside the building, an abandoned store that sold local preserved food, before a third strike hit the building.

Lebanese Red Cross paramedics were eventually given clearance to enter the scene and were able to pull Faraj out alive but said they were fired at by Israeli troops when they tried to get to Khalil, who was buried under the rubble.

She remained alive for several hours, succumbing to her wounds, the report said, and the Israeli military soon after gave clearance for the medical workers to take her.

The coroner's report said that Khalil died in the evening from cardiac arrest due to head trauma and severe bleeding, hours after paramedics initially entered the area and were turned away, said Human Rights Watch's Lebanon Researcher Ramzi Kaiss.

“Khalil was likely alive when paramedics were forced away,” Kaiss said.

Amal Khalil is remembered for being present in large parts of southern Lebanon to try to shed light on life there, despite the risks. Her work in the area is widely respected across Lebanon's media landscape.

Over 4,000 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, and over one million people displaced since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2. Hezbollah fired rockets across the border two days after the U.S. and Iran attacked Iran.

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Jerusalem contributed to this report.