ISRAEL used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three others in an attack in south Lebanon which experts say could be a war crime, an investigation has concluded.
A Guardian investigation found that on October 25 at 3.19am, an Israeli jet shot two bombs at a chalet hosting three reporters.
Cameraman Ghassan Najjar and technician Mohammad Reda from pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, and cameraman Wissam Qassem from the Hezbollah-affiliated outlet al-Manar were all killed in their sleep.
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The attack also wounded three other journalists from different outlets staying nearby. There was no fighting in the area before or at the time of the strike.
The Guardian visited the site, interviewed the owner of the property and journalists present at the time of the attack, analysed shrapnel found at the strike site, and geo-located Israeli surveillance equipment in range of the journalists’ positions.
Based on the findings, three experts in international humanitarian law said the attack could constitute a war crime and called for further investigation.
Nadim Houry, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative, said: “All the indications show that this would have been a deliberate targeting of journalists: a war crime. This was clearly delineated as a place where journalists were staying.”
After the strike, the Israeli military said that it had struck a “Hezbollah military structure” while “terrorists were located inside the structure”.
A few hours after the attack, the Israeli army said that the incident was “under review” following reports that journalists were hit in the strike.
The paper said it found no evidence of the presence of Hezbollah military infrastructure at the site of Israel’s attack, nor that any of the journalists were anything but civilians.
The coffin of one of the journalists, Qassem from al-Manar, was buried wrapped in a Hezbollah flag. The practice is an honorific for people or families who profess political support for the group, but does not indicate that the journalist occupied a political or military role in Hezbollah.
Regardless of their political affiliation, killing journalists is illegal under international humanitarian law unless they are actively participating in military activities.
Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said: “It is a dangerous trend already witnessed in Gaza that journalists are linked to military operations in virtue of their assumed affiliation or political leanings, then seemingly become targets of attack.
A day after Israel began its ground offensives inside Lebanon, a group of about 18 journalists arrived at a luxury guest house resort in Hasbaya, south Lebanon in October. The Israeli advance had forced them to relocate from Ebl al-Saqi, a town in south Lebanon where they had stayed for the past 11 months.
The reporters used the guest houses as a base for 23 days, travelling to a hilltop a 10-minute drive away to film hostilities and produce live coverage each day. They drove cars marked with “Press”, and wore flak jackets and helmets emblazoned with press symbols.
The hilltop was in direct line of sight of three Israeli watchtowers, which are commonly equipped with “Speed-er” cameras which can automatically track targets up to 10km away.
The chalet where Najjar, Reda and Qassem had been sleeping had been directly struck by a bomb delivered by an Israeli jet, with another bomb landing beside the structure.
Remnants of munitions found at the site revealed that at least one of the weapons was a 500lb MK-80 series bomb guided by a US-made JDAM – a kit that converts large dumb bombs into precision-guided weapons.
The fragments were verified by Trevor Ball, a former bomb disposal specialist for the US army, a second arms expert at Omega Research Foundation and a third weapons expert who was not authorised to speak to the media.
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A piece of the tail fin of the Jdam, produced by Boeing, as well as part of the internal control section that moves the fin, was found. A cage code on the remnant of the control section revealed that it was produced by Woodward, a Colorado-based aerospace company.
The use of at least one precision-guided bomb would imply that the Israeli military selected the chalet housing the three journalists as a target before the strike, the probe concluded.
The presence of drones and watchtowers overlooking the group of clearly marked journalists for the prior 23 days makes it likely that Israeli forces were aware of their location and their status as members of the press.
Israel has killed six journalists in Lebanon and at least 122 in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7 last year.
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