The funerals of Ali Choeib and Fatima Ftouni, journalists at Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen, as well as the latter’s brother, videographer Mohammad Ftouni, killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, were held on March 29, 2026, in Choueifate. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — U.N. experts on Thursday called for an international inquiry into the killing of three Lebanese journalists in an Israeli airstrike, arguing that Israel had failed to provide "credible evidence" of their alleged links to armed groups.
Fatima Ftouni, a reporter for the Al-Mayadeen aligned with Hezbollah, her brother and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, and Ali Choeib, a correspondent for Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel, were killed on March 28 by a strike targeting their car in the Jezzine region of southern Lebanon.
"We strongly condemn what is becoming Israel's common and dangerous practice of targeting and killing journalists, then alleging — without providing credible evidence — that they were linked to armed groups," the experts said in a statement.
The Israeli military described Choeib as a member of the Radwan force, an elite Hezbollah unit, "operating under the guise of journalism." According to the experts, Israel's only evidence for this claim was a photo of the journalist doctored in Photoshop, which they say demonstrates "contempt for international law."
Israel also labeled Mohammed Ftouni a "terrorist of the Hezbollah military wing." However, according to these UN-appointed experts, working as a journalist for an outlet affiliated with an armed group does not constitute direct participation in hostilities under international humanitarian law.
"Israeli officials know this but choose to ignore it—encouraged by the impunity they have enjoyed for their previous killings of journalists in Lebanon, Gaza and the occupied West Bank," they said, urging the Lebanese government to "gather evidence" for an international investigation.
Although appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak for the UN.
Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began in 2023 — a conflict that a cease-fire agreed in November 2024 sought to end — the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recorded at least 11 Lebanese journalists and media professionals killed by Israel.
In addition, in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by over two years of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, 210 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli army, according to the CPJ.
