268. Israel’s targeted killings changed the rules of the game
Many of us had been watching this beautiful and bold girl, the Reuters reporter Amal Khalil, on our television sets on one or other channels for the past two months since Israel attacked Lebanon.
In a targeted killing, Israeli forces killed her three days ago on a black Wednesday. When I heard the news, I literally wept for her and her family. It wasn’t time for her to go.
Such a lovely girl, she could have been any of our daughters. Her life was full of possibilities. Such tragic ends demand nothing less than the worst for those who commit such acts.
Such a heinous crime, especially when committed by a race that has experienced it in its worst form, for which we have our deepest sympathy, truly breaks our hearts.
Often, I wonder what the difference is between what Israel is doing in Gaza and Lebanon and what Hitler’s Final Solution was intended to do?
After bombing schools and hospitals, the only excuse the country offers is that we knew that Hezbollah or Hamas terrorists were taking shelter there, so we attacked, and our targets were not the children and the patients. Except for a few Americans led by Donald Trump, no one on the globe will buy this logic.
Despite the ongoing ceasefire, Israel has been continuously killing not only innocent people but also the messengers. The fact is, Israel is more afraid of journalists than anything else.
Israel’s intentional targeting of journalists aims to hide the truth, and this behavior amounts to crimes against humanity under international laws and conventions.
The attack on media workers while they carry out their professional duties is no longer an isolated incident, but has become an established approach.
The IDF’s modus operandi is chilling. Amal Khalil was covering developments near the town of al-Tayri alongside photographer Zeinab Faraj when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them.
When they ran into a nearby house, the IDF targeted it. Rescuers retrieved Faraj, who had a head wound, but when they tried to help Khalil, a sound grenade blocked their access to the damaged building. Even after four hours of trying to remove her body, they were blocked from accessing the building where she was buried under rubble because of additional Israeli fire.
Elsy Moufarrej, the head of the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, said Israel’s military prevented the humanitarian mission from being completed by firing a sound grenade and live ammunition at the ambulance. Civil defense pulled her corpse from under the rubble later. Israel’s military denied it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area.
Khalil previously mentioned receiving a threat from an unknown Israeli phone number, warning her that she would be killed if she did not leave southern Lebanon, where she has long been based.
The Israeli military said it identified two vehicles that left a military structure used by the Hezbollah and crossed the forward defense line. It said the cars approached the troops in a manner that posed an immediate threat to their safety, and that it struck one of the vehicles, then a nearby building.
It is a brazen crime that violates all treaties and norms through which journalists enjoy international protection in war.
Israel has a policy of targeting media workers, despite its repeated denials. But who said that Israel has been in a denial mode? In March, when an Israeli airstrike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said it had targeted one of the reporters.
In March, three journalists were killed in a strike that targeted their car. Israel claimed the target was a man named Shoeib, whom it accused of being a Hezbollah terrorist, but provided no further evidence and made no comment on the deaths of the other two journalists. Shoeib was a well-known war correspondent in Lebanon, where he reported for al-Manar for nearly three decades.
Israel has killed more than 220 journalists since 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders. Israeli attacks have killed 1,189 people and wounded 3,427 in Lebanon, including 48 healthcare workers. As I write, these numbers have risen.
They have lost their conscience; international rules don’t apply to them, and they've never cared about the humanitarian perspective. All that remains is the truth, but they don’t want the world to see it.
This small country and its deep-pocketed citizens, spread across the US and Europe, have become the greatest threat to humanity and the world. The American people need to reconsider, because Israel cannot act without their support.
Putin coined a new term – buffer zone, which Israel is also following. It has seized a belt of territory along the border, where its troops remain, saying it aims to create a buffer zone to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah.
The international community's silence is enabling this to occur.