A journalist who survived a triple-tap Israeli attack in south Lebanon that killed her friend and colleague has recounted to The National how they waited for hours for help as rescuers sought clearance from Israel to approach the building where they took shelter.
Zeinab Faraj, a photographer, barely survived the strikes as she and reporter Amal Khalil were on assignment in the area on Wednesday afternoon, days before the end of a 10-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel that was later extended to three more weeks.
Ms Faraj, 21, said she and Ms Khalil were there to cover yet another funeral when the first Israeli strike hit the car in front of them as they drove through the town of At Tiri.
A subsequent strike hit their vehicle, which they survived – and then a third hit the building where they had sought refuge, according to their account and Lebanese sources contacted by The National.
It was the final strike that killed Ms Khalil, who was already severely injured. Ms Faraj said she lay in agony near her deceased friend for hours as Israel prevented medics from reaching them, despite the efforts of President Joseph Aoun to secure their rescue.
“I can’t accept that Amal is gone,” she said, her voice cracking. “I don’t know how I will live with this pain. The only thing I can say is 'thank God', but truly, I wish I had gone with them. It would be easier than living with this pain.”
Before this, the journalists had been making calls regularly to plead for help. However, Israel prevented the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross from reaching them, informed sources told The National.
Israeli forces struck the road leading to the building, and then targeted medics who arrived with a drone and a sound grenade, according to a senior Lebanese military source.
Despite the danger, the Lebanese army proceeded with the rescue, the source said. Ms Faraj was removed from the building first and taken to the hospital in Tebnine. Ms Khalil’s body was recovered later, after hours of delay, as Israeli troops kept blocking medics from entering the house, Lebanon’s Civil Defence said.
President Aoun “personally intervened” immediately to secure the journalists' rescue through the ceasefire monitoring mechanism that is part of a multinational US-led committee set up in 2024 to oversee Israel and Hezbollah's previous truce, according to another source with knowledge of the matter, but Israel “took its time to respond”.
Mr Aoun was also in contact with the Red Cross and the Lebanese Army, the source said.
"There is a set procedure: the Lebanese Army co-ordinates with the mechanism, which in turn contacts the Israeli side. That is where the delay occurred,” the source explained. “The mechanism told the Lebanese side it was 'working on the clearance from the Israeli side,'” they added.
The UN peacekeeping force Unifil told The National that it sent notifications to the Israeli army for deconfliction of a Lebanese Red Cross mission to assist the journalists in At Tiri following an air strike there.
“We understand it was also being deconflicted in parallel through other channels," a Unifil official said. The Israeli military "later deconflicted these movements for LRC and LAF escort", they said.
The Lebanese military source denied that the army had received “clearance” from the mechanism to enter the town and said it went to rescue the journalists anyway.
At Tiri, in the Bint Jbeil district, is part of Israel's self-declared buffer zone in southern Lebanon. At least four other people besides Ms Khalil were killed in Wednesday’s strikes on the village, making it the deadliest day in the region since the ceasefire came into effect on April 17.
Ms Khalil worked for Al Akhbar, the Beirut-based newspaper that is widely recognised as being editorially aligned with Hezbollah. Her killing is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on journalists in southern Lebanon.
'Left alone'
The heart monitor spiked every time emotions overwhelmed Ms Faraj as she spoke to The National, her head wrapped in a white bandage and the right side of her face bruised and swollen.
Ms Faraj told The National that the initial strike killed two civilians in the car ahead, her relative and his friend. The two journalists jumped out of their car and took shelter in something resembling a bus shelter along the road.
An hour and a half later, she said, the Israeli military struck Ms Khalil’s car, two metres away from where they were standing, injuring both of them. The car caught fire – and so did Ms Khalil.
“I saw Amal like that, burning, telling me, 'Zeinab, I’m burning,'" Ms Faraj said. She helped her friend into a nearby building as an Israeli surveillance drone hovered above.
“She told me: ‘Don’t fall asleep, don’t leave me,’” Ms Faraj said, tears streaming down her face.
She added that her eyes were starting to close from exhaustion when she heard Amal screaming. Another Israeli strike had hit the building where they were hiding, causing it to collapse on them. “Amal was gone," Ms Faraj said. “And I was left alone”.
It is unclear whether President Aoun ever received a response from Israel, or if it came too late.
The Israeli military denied blocking access to medics, and claimed it had struck vehicles that had crossed what it called a “forward defence line” and posed an immediate threat to its troops.
Targeting of journalists
“This is a war crime," Ayman Mhanna, executive director of the Beirut-based Samir Kassir Foundation, told The National.
“There is no credibility to any Israeli denial that they knew who she was, where she was, and that she needed assistance. Leaving a wounded journalist for hours without allowing rescue access has already been observed in Gaza,” he added.
Three media workers were killed in a strike in March, with the Israeli military saying that one of them had been the target of the attack.
Mr Aoun accused Israel of deliberately attacking journalists in an attempt to “conceal the truth of its aggressive acts against Lebanon”.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam described attacks on journalists and obstruction of rescue efforts as “war crimes” and said Beirut would pursue the case internationally.
After more than a year of what Lebanon has described as a one-sided ceasefire, the conflict resumed on March 2 when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Israel-US strikes, said the group, and in response to near-daily Israeli violations of the truce.
Israel retaliated with force that was described as “disproportionate” by EU and Western officials, killing at least 2,294 people, including 177 children, and striking civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
A US-brokered 10-day ceasefire halted the fighting, but it does not stipulate that Israel withdraw from Lebanese territory and allows it to carry out attacks on perceived targets.
Israeli troops continue to occupy dozens of villages extending to about 10km inside southern Lebanon, where residents have been banned from returning and where Israel continues to demolish residential homes and infrastructure to create what it says is a security zone.
A second round of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel was held in Washington on Thursday. It ended with the ceasefire being extended for three more weeks.
For Ms Faraj, this is only the start of her recovery. She was the only patient on the ward, and one of only a handful at Tebnine Hospital. While it may be the only functioning hospital in the south, it is simply too dangerous for patients to stay for long.
Explosions can be heard from the hospital, coming from villages within the Israeli-occupied zone.
It is too dangerous for reporters to cover these demolitions, The National has been told, especially since Ms Khalil’s killing, with the area off-limits even to the Lebanese state, and residents only able to speculate on the destruction beyond the hills where the blasts come from.
