An apartment in flames after an Israeli strike on a building in the Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood in central Beirut, on March 18, 2026. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient-Le Jour)
The Al-Manar television channel, affiliated with Hezbollah, announced Wednesday that its director of political programming, Mohammad Cherri, as well as his wife, were killed during an Israeli strike that targeted the Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood in central Beirut this morning.
“This treacherous Israeli strike targeted civilians who were safe in their homes and apartments, resulting in the martyrdom of Mohammad Cherri and his wife. Their children and grandchildren, including women and children, were also injured and later transferred to hospitals,” the channel said in a statement. Ill, he was “recovering after surgery” when he was killed, according to the statement.
The president of the Order of Journalists, Joseph Qosseifi, condemned in a statement “the assassination” of the journalist from the Al-Manar channel, Mohammad Cherri, and his wife in their home. “This crime is added to a series of crimes committed by Israel against Lebanese journalists and media figures, which have cost the lives of or injured many of them,” he lamented.
On March 3, the day after the war began in Lebanon, Al-Manar offices in the southern suburbs of Beirut, now nearly deserted by its residents, were bombed by the Israeli army. Al-Nour radio, also affiliated with Hezbollah and based in the southern suburbs, the group’s stronghold, was also targeted the same day. During the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, the party’s spokesperson, Mohammad Afif, was killed along with four other members of his media team in two Israeli strikes in the heart of Beirut in November 2024.
According to a provisional toll from the Health Ministry, at least 12 people were killed, and 27 others injured in the Israeli airstrikes carried out at dawn on Wednesday against the Basta and Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhoods in Beirut. Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed at least 912 people, including 111 children, since March 2, according to an updated toll as of March 17. The Israeli army, for its part, said it has killed about 400 Hezbollah fighters.
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