Middle East: Lebanon says Israel strike killed 3 journalists

The Israeli military told French news agency AFP that a strike that killed three journalists in south Lebanon was "under review."

"Several hours after the strike, reports were received that journalists had been hit during the strike. The incident is under review," the military said in a statement to AFP.

Three journalists were killed in the strike on Friday morning.

It hit a collection of guesthouses housing reporters in the southern Lebanese town of Hasbaya.

Two journalists from the Al-Mayadeen television network and one journalist from Al-Manar were killed in the attack. 

The health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza  says Israeli forces detained hundreds of staff, patients and displaced people in a raid on the last functioning hospital in the northern part of the territory.

"Israeli forces have stormed and are present inside Kamal Adwan Hospital" in the city of Jabalia, the ministry said in a statement.

"They are detaining hundreds of patients, medical staff and some displaced individuals from neighboring areas who sought refuge in the hospital from continuous bombardment."

World Health Organization chief Tedros Ghebreyesus says contact with the hospital was lost on Friday morning. 

"Since this morning's reports of a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there," Ghebreyesus said on X.

"This development is deeply disturbing, given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there."

The Israeli army confirmed that troops were operating in the hospital area. It said they were accompanied by agents of the Shin Bet domestic security service.

United Nations peacekeepers said Friday that Israeli troops fired at one of their observation posts in south Lebanon this week, adding that the security situation was "extremely challenging" amid attacks.

"IDF (Israeli army) soldiers fired at" an observation post near the border village of Dhayra on Tuesday, a statement from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said on Friday, adding "the duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot."

The peacekeepers have subsequently withdrawn from the observation post in south Lebanon.

An Israeli air attack has hit a Syrian military intelligence post at a crossing on Syria's border with Lebanon.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated the death toll to be three.

The strike targeted the post at the Jousieh border crossing linking the al-Qusayr countryside in Syria with Lebanon, also putting the crossing completely out of service, according to the British-based watchdog, which added that Israel was continuing its attacks on the border in an attempt to cut off the supply routes of the Iranian-allied Lebanese Hezbollah movement. 

The Israeli military said it had struck overnight Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the Jousieh crossing and accused the militia of exploiting the border facility, controlled by Syrian government forces, to transfer weapons to attack Israel.

The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have been killed and two others seriously wounded in fighting in southern Lebanon.

The troops "fell during combat in southern Lebanon" the previous day, the army said in a statement on Friday.

It brings the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon since the start of the ground operation at the end of September to 32.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in London as Washington appeals to Israel to keep its military campaign against Hezbollah short.

Blinken arrived late Thursday in the British capital after a three-nation tour of the Middle East.

On the trip, he pleaded to protect Lebanese civilians but stopped short of calling for an immediate cease-fire by Israel.

The top US diplomat is also due to meet separately with the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

The two are seen as key US partners in a post-war plan for Gaza, the State Department official said.

Mikati was heading to London after a Thursday conference in Paris on aid for Lebanon.

Israel has vowed to cripple Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries. The EU lists the group's armed wing as a terrorist entity.

Hezbollah has launched missiles at Israel in solidarity with Hamas since the Palestinian militants' October 7 terror attack last year, which triggered Israel's military assault in Gaza.

Lebanon says an Israeli airstrike killed three journalists, in an attack that the Lebanese information minister branded as a "war crime".

Pro-Iran Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen said a cameraman and broadcast engineer died in the Friday strike, which it said targeted a journalists' residence in Hasbaya, southern Lebanon.

Another outlet, Al-Manar, run by Hezbollah, said one of its video journalists had also been killed in the attack.

"The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists' nighttime break to betray them in their sleep," Information Minister Ziad Makary said in a post on X.

"This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime."

Journalists from other media organizations, including the Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, Sky News Arabic and Al Jazeera English, were also nearby when the overnight strike happened.

Israel has not commented on the strike, which, according to Lebanon's health ministry, wounded three other people.

rc/wd (APF, AP, dpa, Reuters)