Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil killed in Israeli strike on a house
where she took cover, paper says
[April 23, 2026]
By BASSEM MROUE and SARAH EL DEEB
BEIRUT (AP) — A Lebanese journalist was killed Wednesday in an Israeli
airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon where she had taken cover while
reporting on the Israel-Hezbollah war. Her body was only retrieved from
the rubble hours later, rescue workers said.
The daily Al-Akhbar newspaper says its reporter Amal Khalil was killed
in the southern village of al-Tiri.
Khalil had been covering the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and the
Lebanese Hezbollah militant group that resumed in early March, in the
shadow of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. She took cover in the house in
al-Tiri after an earlier Israeli airstrike hit near the car she was
traveling in with another colleague.
The Lebanese health ministry said the first strike killed two people. A
second Israeli strike then hit the house in al-Tiri where Khalil and her
colleague Zeinab Faraj had taken cover.
At first, rescue workers were able to get to Faraj, who was seriously
wounded, and retrieve the bodies of two killed in the first airstrike.
But they were fired on by Israeli forces so they were forced to halt
attempts to reach Khalil, the ministry said.
Khalil remained under the rubble for hours before the Lebanese army,
civil defense and the Lebanese Red Cross were able to get to the scene
hours later. Khalil's body was retrieved shortly before midnight, at
least six hours after the strike.
Israel’s military said individuals in the village had violated the
ceasefire, endangering its troops. Israel denied that it targets
journalists or that it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area. It
said the incident was under review.
"Killing of journalists is a crime and a flagrant violation of
international and humanitarian law,” said Lebanon’s Information Minister
Paul Morcos.
Khalil's death comes on the eve of the second round of direct talks
between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington on extending the
ceasefire that went into effect last Friday.
Khalil, who was from southern Lebanon, had been covering the area since
2006 for al-Akhbar. Her latest reporting was about Israeli demolitions
of Lebanese homes in villages where Israeli troops are now positioned
inside Lebanon.
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This photo released by the Lebanese Civil Defense, show Lebanese Red
Cross volunteers and a Civil Defense worker sit on a excavator
carrying the body of the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil working for
the daily Al-Akhbar newspaper killed in an Israeli airstrike, in al-Tiri
village, south Lebanon, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (Lebanese Civil
Defense via AP)
Her death brings to nine the number of journalists killed in Lebanon
so far this year. At least 2,300 people have been killed in Israeli
strikes and more than 1 million displaced since the latest
Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.
Earlier on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders called for
international pressure on the Israeli army to allow Khalil's rescue.
Committee to Protect Journalists expressed its “outrage” at the
apparent targeting of the two journalists and warned the obstruction
of rescue efforts “may amount to a war crime.”
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun asked the Lebanese Red Cross to
coordinate with the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers “to carry
out the rescue operation" as quickly as possible.
In late March, an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon killed three
journalists covering the war. Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said its
longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed. Israel’s military said
it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah
intelligence operative, without providing evidence.
Also killed in the same strike was reporter Fatima Ftouni, who
worked for the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV along with her brother
Mohammed Ftouni, a video journalist.
Days earlier, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut
killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at
Hezbollah’s at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.
___
Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this
report.
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