By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-10-25 22:20:09 | Updated at 2024-10-26 00:32:59
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Israel says it was bombing a structure associated with Hezbollah and says it is reviewing the strike.
Oct. 25, 2024, 6:18 p.m. ET
In calmer times, the Hasbaya Village Club was a leafy oasis in southern Lebanon, its vacation bungalows with their red tile roofs set near a small river, looking out over the stunning mountain vistas of the region close to the Israeli border.
In the past month, since Israeli forces moved into Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, the bungalows have housed 18 journalists from international and Lebanese news organizations, according to a statement by Ziad T. Makary, Lebanon’s minister of information. The correspondents, cameramen and other media workers wanted to be close enough to cover the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, but able to retreat from the tumult of the battlefield at the end of each day.
The battle came to them around 3 a.m. on Friday, however, with three killed and at least three wounded after what several reporters who survived described as a shattering Israeli airstrike that destroyed three of the bungalows while their occupants were asleep.
The three men killed became the latest journalists to die while covering the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Both Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, and Mr. Makary called the attack a “war crime.” The prime minister, who posted a statement on X, said, “This deliberate aggression certainly aims to intimidate the media to cover up the crimes and destruction being committed.”
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had bombed a structure affiliated with Hezbollah. “Following intelligence information, the I.D.F. struck a Hezbollah military structure in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, from which Hezbollah terrorists were operating,” it said. “The strike was carried out while the terrorists were located inside the structure.”
