Assassination of Lebanese Journalist Amal Khalil: Three Independent Investigations Conclude It Was a War Crime
By: Dr. Hana Saada
ALGIERS – Weapons experts from Amnesty International examined footage from the site alongside satellite imagery. Their findings confirm that the destruction was consistent with a deliberate airstrike. According to the investigators, the constant presence of drones demonstrates that Israeli forces were monitoring the scene in real time and could not have been unaware that only two civilian women were inside the building.
The legal and moral noose continues to tighten around the Israeli entity, whose targeted assassinations and mass crimes have surpassed every atrocity humanity has endured from time immemorial to the present-day massacres in Lebanon. Three independent investigations conducted by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Lebanese legal journal Al-Moufakkira Al-Qanouniya (The Legal Agenda) have reached a damning conclusion: the killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, who was slain in southern Lebanon on 22 April 2026, is supported by compelling evidence warranting the conclusion that it constitutes a war crime attributable to the Israeli occupation army.
The investigations carried out by the three organizations converge on the same finding: Amal Khalil and her colleague, journalist Zeinab Faraj, were clearly identifiable civilians trapped in the town of Al-Tayri, in the Nabatieh District, when they were targeted by a succession of Israeli strikes. The investigators conclude that the Israeli forces knew, or should have known, that the two women posed no military threat whatsoever.
Three Successive Strikes Against Civilians
The events unfolded during the afternoon of 22 April 2026.
While covering the aftermath of the bombardment in southern Lebanon, Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj travelled to Al-Tayri following reports that Israeli forces had withdrawn from the area. They were following a vehicle carrying the mokhtar of Bint Jbeil, Ali Nabil Bazzi, together with Mohamed Hourani.
At 2:25 p.m., a first strike destroyed the vehicle in front of them, killing both occupants instantly.
Minutes later, Amal Khalil contacted the emergency services to report the attack. Coordination was immediately initiated between the Lebanese Civil Defence, the Lebanese Red Cross, the Lebanese Armed Forces, UNIFIL, and the Israeli forces in an effort to secure safe access to the area.
Despite these efforts, rescue teams were denied authorization to intervene.
Israeli Drones Maintained Constant Surveillance
According to Amnesty International, Israeli drones hovered continuously over the two journalists for nearly two hours, flying at exceptionally low altitude—at times less than one metre above them.
Fearing another strike, the two women abandoned their vehicle, sought shelter behind a low wall, and eventually slipped into an abandoned building.
At 3:40 p.m., a second strike targeted their parked vehicle nearby.
The explosion seriously wounded both journalists. Amal Khalil sustained injuries to the head, arm and thigh and was no longer able to walk. She contacted the emergency services once again, desperately pleading for an immediate evacuation.
Telephone recordings reviewed by Human Rights Watch confirm that she reported her injuries and stated that the drones continued to monitor them while rescue teams remained unable to reach the scene because authorization had still not been granted.
The Third Strike Destroys Their Shelter
At approximately 4:25 p.m., a third bombardment struck directly the three-storey building in which the two journalists had taken refuge.
The building collapsed completely.
Zeinab Faraj miraculously survived despite sustaining severe injuries. Amal Khalil remained trapped beneath the rubble.
Weapons experts from Amnesty International examined footage from the site together with satellite imagery. Their findings confirmed that the destruction was consistent with a deliberate airstrike.
According to the investigators, the drones’ uninterrupted presence demonstrates that the Israeli forces were observing the scene in real time and could not have been unaware that only two civilian women were inside the building.
Rescue Efforts Deliberately Delayed
The three investigations also call into question the conduct of the Israeli forces in the aftermath of the strikes.
Despite repeated requests from the Lebanese Red Cross, UNIFIL, and the Lebanese authorities, ambulances were denied access for several hours before finally receiving authorization to enter the area.
Rescue teams were even compelled to withdraw after concluding that they were once again at risk of being targeted.
According to The Legal Agenda, these obstructions cannot be regarded as a mere secondary aspect of the military operation. Rather, they may constitute a separate violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits preventing the wounded from receiving access to emergency medical assistance.
Human Rights Watch further states that Israeli forces also fired upon an ambulance and deployed a stun grenade launched from a drone in order to drive back rescue personnel.
When rescuers were eventually able to return to the scene, Zeinab Faraj was pulled alive from the rubble.
Amal Khalil, however, remained buried beneath the ruins.
Her body was not recovered until around 11:00 p.m.
The forensic pathologist determined that she died at approximately 7:00 p.m., concluding that death resulted from cardiac arrest caused by severe cranial trauma and massive haemorrhaging. According to Human Rights Watch, she was most likely still alive when rescue teams were forced to abandon their initial rescue attempt.
Damning Findings
The three human rights organizations believe there are reasonable grounds to conclude that these strikes constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.
Their findings are based on a particularly extensive body of evidence, including videos, photographs, satellite imagery, ballistic analyses, telephone records, survivor testimonies, medical reports, as well as coordination exchanges between the Lebanese Red Cross, UNIFIL, and the Israeli army.
The Israeli army—the most immoral and deceitful army in the world—brazenly claims that it targeted individuals it considered to pose a threat after they emerged from a building it alleged was a Hezbollah facility.
However, Human Rights Watch states that it found no evidence indicating that the civilian victims, including Ali Nabil Bazzi and Mohamed Hourani, were combatants or involved in military activities.
For the human rights organizations, the sequence of the three strikes, the continuous surveillance carried out by drones, and the obstacles placed in the way of rescue efforts constitute an especially grave body of evidence reinforcing suspicions that civilians were deliberately targeted and that the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law were manifestly violated.
This heinous crime must be added to the tens of thousands of others already committed by the Israeli entity, which will one day or another be called to account.
— 𝐄𝐍𝐃 —
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