Israeli bombardment kills four in Lebanon

Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon yesterday killed four civilians, official media said, including two journalists from Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen television, the broadcaster reported, in ongoing violence at the Lebanon-Israel border.
Since the start of Israel-Hamas war, the frontier between Lebanon and Israeli has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and the Hezbollah movement, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported “the deaths of three citizens — two journalists and another civilian — in enemy bombing” of the Tair Harfa area.
Al Mayadeen said its correspondent Farah Omar, 25, and cameraman Rabih Maamari, 40, were killed.
Lebanon’s army also said the trio were killed in “enemy bombing”.
Israel’s military said “soldiers operated against a threat” from a Hezbollah “launching area” in the area of Jebbayn, near Tair Harfa. “We are aware of a claim regarding journalists in the area who were killed as a result of IDF (army) fire. This is an area with active hostilities, where exchanges of fire occur...The incident is under review,” it said.
Al Mayadeen director Ghassan bin Jiddo said the third civilian killed with the journalists was a “contributor”.
“It was a direct attack, it was not by chance,” Bin Jiddo said in an interview on the channel, noting it came after an Israeli government decision this month to block access to the website of Al Mayadeen.
Elsewhere in south Lebanon, the NNA said “enemy aircraft raided inhabited houses in Kfar Kila, leading to the death of citizen Laiqa Sarhan, 80, and the wounding of her granddaughter”, a Syrian national.
Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, said that “in response” to the attacks, its fighters targeted Israeli forces with guided missiles and a “military base” with Grad-type Katyusha rockets.
It had claimed other attacks yesterday, while the Israeli military also said it had struck “cells” near the border, as well as Hezbollah targets and the source of mortar shelling and other “launches” from Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati expressed his “strong condemnation of the Israeli attack” on the journalists, a statement said.
“This attack proves once more that Israeli crimes know no limit and that (Israel’s) aim is to silence the media who expose its crimes and its attacks,” Mikati was quoted as saying in the statement.
Since the cross-border exchanges began, at least 95 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally, most of them Hezbollah combatants but including at least 14 civilians, three of them journalists.
On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
On October 13, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six other journalists from AFP, Al Jazeera and Reuters wounded while covering cross-border fire.
Lebanese authorities have accused Israel of being responsible. The Israeli army has said it is looking into the circumstances.
US envoy Amos Hochstein, who visited Lebanon earlier this month, was in Israel on Monday to help prevent full-blown war from breaking out on the Israel-Lebanon border, Washington said.
“We certainly don’t believe it’s in anybody’s interest... to have a second front there in the north,” US national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists at least 53 journalists and media workers have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war: 46 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.