International and Lebanese human rights organizations have accused Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, calling the attack a possible war crime and alleging that Israeli forces obstructed efforts to rescue her.
Separate investigations released by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and Lebanese legal advocacy group The Legal Agenda concluded that the April 22 strike in al-Tiri, southern Lebanon, appeared to intentionally target civilians.
Khalil, a veteran reporter for Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, was killed in the attack, while photojournalist Zainab Faraj was critically injured.
According to the reports, the two journalists had taken shelter in a building after abandoning their vehicle because of earlier Israeli strikes nearby. The organizations allege the building was subsequently hit despite the Lebanese Red Cross requesting, through the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), permission to evacuate the journalists.
HRW said the available evidence suggests Israeli forces either knew or should have known the women were civilians and described the strikes as “apparently deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects,” which it said could constitute war crimes.
Amnesty International similarly called for the incident to be investigated as a war crime, while The Legal Agenda concluded that the attack represented grave violations of international humanitarian law.
The rights groups also alleged that Israeli forces impeded rescue efforts by firing a stun grenade toward Lebanese Red Cross personnel and that an ambulance responding to the scene appeared to have been struck by small-arms fire.
The Israeli military has maintained that it targeted a vehicle departing from what it described as a Hezbollah military facility, followed by strikes on the associated structure. It denied preventing rescue teams from reaching the area and told Amnesty International that the incident had undergone a preliminary review and that “relevant lessons” had been implemented, while expressing regret for harm caused to journalists.
The reports add to longstanding concerns raised by press freedom and human rights organizations over the deaths of journalists in the Israel-Lebanon and Israel-Gaza conflicts. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Israel was responsible for the majority of journalists killed globally in 2025, and rights groups continue to call for independent investigations and greater accountability for attacks on media workers.
