Al-Manar said in a report that an Israeli airstrike targeted journalists, leading to the “martyrdom of the icon of resistance media.” A well-known Lebanese war correspondent, Shoeib, had covered south Lebanon for Al-Manar for nearly three decades.
The Israeli army claimed that Shoeib was “operating systematically to expose the locations of (Israeli) soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” The army also accused him of maintaining contact with Hezbollah militants and inciting against Israeli troops and civilians, without elaborating.
Al-Manar TV did not respond to the Israeli allegations but described its correspondent as “distinguished by his professional and credible reporting of events.”
Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war when Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2 to avenge the US-Israeli killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel has responded with large-scale airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground offensive in the south.
ISRAEL KILLED JOURNALISTS IN GAZA
In the past, Israel has made allegations against Palestinian journalists that it targeted in its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, accusing them of being Hamas militants posing as reporters.
In October 2023, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed, and six others were wounded, including American journalist Dylan Collins and Lebanese journalist Christina Assi with AFP, while covering the Gaza conflict from Lebanon near the Israeli border.
An independent AFP investigation concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area inside Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including those by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
FIVE JOURNALISTS KILLED IN LEBANON IN 2026
Since the last Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, Israel’s air force has struck Hezbollah’s civilian targets, including the headquarters of Al-Manar and the group’s Al-Nour radio station.
Saturday’s strike came days after an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.
The latest deaths bring the number of journalists and media workers killed this year in Lebanon to five.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that freelance photojournalist Hussain Hamood, who used to collaborate with Al-Manar TV, was also killed on Wednesday in the southern city of Nabatiyeh.