A British reporter working for Russia Today has been hospitalised with his cameraman after an Israeli strike exploded meters from them.
Steven Sweeney and his cameraman, Ali Rida, were reporting in southern Lebanon when an IDF plane fired towards their press car.
RT editor Margarita Simonyan said: ‘Both men are conscious in hospital, doctors are diagnosing the extent of shrapnel damage. War journalists are not legitimate targets. We pray for them.’
Steven was heard speaking about rocket attacks in southern Lebanon when a missile was heard getting closer.
Suddenly, the weapon hit the ground, throwing Steven and Ali to the ground as rubble rained down around them.
Israel has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting deaths in 1992.
Shortly after the war began in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli strikes killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.
Amnesty International did not find any indication that there were any fighters or military objectives at the site of the strikes, raising concerns that these strikes were likely a direct attack.
Israel is now targeting southern Lebanon as the war between the US and Iran continues, targeting what they say are Hezbollah targets.
Since March 2, at least 886 people have been killed – 111 of whom are children, according to the United Nations.
The UN states: ‘International humanitarian law demands distinction between military targets, and civilians and civilian objects, and insists on feasible precautions being taken to protect civilians.
‘Deliberately attacking civilians or civilian objects amounts to a war crime.’
Israel has kept up its intense pressure with strikes it said targeted Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, hitting multiple apartment buildings in Beirut.
Israeli strikes have displaced more than one million Lebanese – roughly 20% of the population – according to the Lebanese government.
Lebanon is on the brink of a conflict with ‘disastrous humanitarian consequences’ after the Israeli Defence Force operations, Yvette Cooper said yesterday.
Speaking in the Commons, the Foreign Secretary said: ‘I am extremely concerned the country is on the precipice of a widening conflict that risks disastrous humanitarian consequences.’
Cooper has called for urgent diplomatic talks to prevent more escalation and condemned attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah, who have fired rockets into northern Israel.
She said she supported the sovereignty of Lebanon and raised concerns about the impact of Israeli Defence Force attacks on Lebanon on civilians.
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