Two human rights groups have said an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon that killed al-Akhbar newspaper reporter Amal Khalil and seriously wounded freelance camera operator Zeinab Faraj was an apparent war crime.

Separate reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International concluded that the journalists were targeted while reporting in the town of al-Tiri on 22 April.

They called for an independent investigation and for Lebanon to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

The Israeli military denied targeting the journalists, telling the BBC that the three strikes carried out by its forces were aimed at two operatives of the armed group Hezbollah.

“The Israeli military says it does not target journalists, but the facts and evidence show that it has repeatedly done so. Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj are the latest victims in a long series of such attacks,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The two rights groups said they had reviewed photo and video evidence of the events in al-Tiri, as well as witness testimony from Faraj and first responders, media reports, and a message from the Lebanese Red Cross to the Israeli military.

According to HRW’s reconstruction of the events, the first Israeli strike hit a car driving in front of the two female journalists at about 14:30 local time, killing two men they knew, Ali Bazzi and Mohammed al-Hourani.

HRW said the strike forced Khalil and Faraj to abandon their vehicle and seek refuge near a neighbouring building. They called the Lebanese Red Cross for help, and at 15:00 the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) sent the Israeli military a request from the Lebanese Red Cross to access the site and rescue them.

A second strike, between 15:21 and 15:42, hit the journalists’ parked car, injuring Khalil, HRW added. She and Faraj then sheltered inside the building, which was destroyed by a third strike at about 16:25.

Israeli quadcopter drones appeared to monitor Faraj and Khalil throughout the attack.

“The drones got extremely close, coming through the broken roof. Less than a meter away. I was covering my face, thinking of a video I had seen where a drone killed someone like that. I thought it would explode in my face. The drones didn’t carry visible explosives, but they were hovering and provoking fear constantly,” Faraj told Amnesty.

Phone records showed Khalil remained in contact with first responders and family members as the attacks unfolded, according to the rights group.

A Lebanese Red Cross team was able to enter the town after 17:00.

But when the paramedics began rescue efforts, they came under fire from a drone-delivered stun grenade and were forced to retreat without recovering Khalil, witnesses told HRW.

Photographs reviewed by the group also showed damage to the Lebanese Red Cross ambulance that it said was consistent with small-arms fire.

HRW said a report from Tebnin Governmental Hospital indicated that Khalil was most likely still alive when the paramedics were forced to withdraw from the site at around 17:53.

The report stated that Khalil died around 19:00 as a result of cardiac arrest. It also said she had a head injury that caused severe bleeding. Her body was eventually recovered by rescue workers at around 23:00.

The Israeli military said the strikes that killed Khalil and wounded Faraj formed “part of a series of events” in which two Hezbollah operatives were killed, and that it “regrets any harm caused to journalists”.

It said the incident was under internal review, but did not answer follow-up questions from the BBC about the purpose of the second and third strikes.

Both HRW and Amnesty said the evidence showed that Israeli forces “knew or should have known” that the women were civilians.

Deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited under international humanitarian law.

“There can be no justification for targeting civilians who sought shelter in search of safety,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty’s Middle East director.

Kaiss said: “Israeli forces’ continued killing of journalists shows a brazen willingness to commit atrocities without any fear of consequences.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 27 journalists and media workers have been killed this year, including nine in Lebanon and seven in Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

UN aid agencies also reported that needs remain high, even though food insecurity has eased a little following the October Israel-Hamas ceasefire that ended a two-year-long war which left much of Gaza destroyed and most Palestinians displaced.

Last Friday, The US-led Board of Peace backed by the Security Council and established under the 20-point peace plan announced an agreement to move to disarmament and the next stage of the ceasefire, with Hamas declaring it was accepting the roadmap. 

The Israeli Government reportedly said Sunday it had “serious security concerns” over the proposal and would not withdraw from Gaza ahead of full disarmament.

What you need to know

• Israeli airstrikes, shelling and shooting continued across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, the UN relief agency, OCHA, said, killing over 25, according to news reports
• An Israeli attack near a Gaza hospital on Saturday destroyed critical medical supplies as UN agencies reported shortages of key medicines and essential items amid soaring food prices
• In the occupied West Bank, an intensifying pattern of settler violence meant that July stands alongside March this year as the deadliest month for Palestinians in settler attacks since the war erupted in October 2023, according to OCHA updates
• The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) continued to observe daily Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace over the weekend

Fresh Israeli strikes in Gaza

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that more than 150 fatalities, including dozens of civilians, were documented in July, the highest reported monthly death toll since the beginning of the year, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday.

Most strikes targeted western Gaza, “within the less than half of the Strip”, where virtually all 2.1 million of the enclave’s residents are now concentrated, he said.

Fresh Israeli attacks also hit the area of Al-Aqsa Hospital on Saturday, damaging an adjacent medical storage facility and destroying essential medical supplies, including some delivered by the World Health Organization (WHO), Mr. Haq said.

Severe medicine shortages

In addition to airstrikes destroying critical supplies, OCHA highlighted already critical shortages of key medicines to treat chronic diseases, including insulin and materials needed for cardiac treatment, dialysis supplies and critical diagnostic and monitoring equipment.

“More supplies required to prevent and control infections are pending Israeli approval to bring into Gaza,” the UN Deputy Spokesperson said.

Right now, alcohol-based disinfectants, which are essential for hygiene and routine infection prevention, are largely unavailable, he added.

Priced out

Even with an increased number of commercial and humanitarian trucks reaching Gaza, high market prices are making basic food items unaffordable for four in 10 households, according to a World Food Programme (WFP) survey of families in the war-torn Strip.

Nearly one in two households said that they had completely run out of food at home, with 22 per cent experiencing this more than 10 times in the month preceding the survey.

A severe cooking gas shortage has left families waiting weeks for an eight kilo canister that lasts barely half a month, with black market prices beyond reach for most, and forcing thousands to burn hazardous waste or firewood if they want to make a hot meal, WFP warned.

Learn more about UN efforts in Occupied Palestinian Territory here.

Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) continued to observe daily Israeli violations of Lebanon’s airspace, roadblocks and activities in its territorial waters despite a 17 April conditional ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanese Government reached via US-led talks.

Between Thursday and Sunday, peacekeepers recorded 125 air violations, with the combined total overflight time exceeding 418 hours. Surveillance and armed drones were observed near or above UNIFIL positions in both sectors.

“Peacekeepers also report extensive military activity on the ground in south Lebanon, including significant engineering works and active troop movements,” the UN Deputy Spokesperson said. 

More than 4,300 people have been killed and 12,200 more have been injured in Lebanon since Iran-backed Hezbollah militants joined the regional war triggered by US-Israeli attacks on 2 March, according to national authorities. 

Learn more about UNIFIL here.

Lebanon’s army says its troops have begun deploying to a “pilot zone” in the south of the country following the withdrawal of Israeli forces under a US-brokered agreement reached last month.

A statement from the army command said units had entered the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh in Nabatieh district on Tuesday morning.

On Monday night, Israel’s military confirmed the start of the pilot zone plan, which should see Israeli troops pulling out of a small part of the territory occupied during their conflict with Hezbollah as well as the disarmament of the Iran-backed group.

It comes ahead of a meeting in Washington between US President Donald Trump and his Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun.

Aoun is expected to urge Trump to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from the rest of southern Lebanon and to provide support to the Lebanese army to take full control of areas where Hezbollah holds sway.

The US state department announced on Monday afternoon that “pilot zone operations” had begun in Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh and two other Lebanese villages, Froun and Srifa, in line with the Trilateral Framework agreement between Israel, Lebanon and the US.

It said the “milestone” was the direct result of discussions last week between Israeli and Lebanese representatives in Rome.

Later on Monday, an Israeli military official confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would “adjust its force posture in one of the pilot areas” to allow the Lebanese army to carry out its mission, while also “safeguarding the security of IDF soldiers and preserving its right to self-defence and to remove threats”.

“The objective of the pilot and the agreement is the disarmament of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation and the removal of its illegal weapons,” the official said.

They also reiterated that the IDF would remain in the “security zone” – the 10km (six-mile) deep strip of occupied Lebanese territory running along the border – for “as long as necessary” to defend northern Israeli communities.

On Tuesday, the Lebanese army’s command said its units had begun deploying to Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh “based on ongoing communications with the Military Co-ordination Group for Lebanon”, referring to the trilateral body created to support implementation of the framework.

The statement also called on Lebanese citizens “not to head to the village until the security situation stabilises, and to comply with the instructions of the deployed military units for their own safety”.

The Lebanese army said its troops were already carrying out missions in nearby Froun and Srifa following Monday’s US announcement.

An Israeli source also told the Haaretz newspaper that there were no Israeli troops in those villages.

Lebanon was drawn into the war between Israel, the US and Iran on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader.

Israel responded by launching a bombing campaign across Lebanon and invading a significant part of the country’s south.

More than 4,300 people have been killed in Lebanon, including almost 800 children, women and medics, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Israeli authorities say 37 Israeli soldiers and four civilians have been killed on both sides of the border during the conflict.

Lebanese environmental activist Mona Khalil, whose work helped turn a stretch of coastline in southern Lebanon into one of the eastern Mediterranean’s most important nesting sites for endangered sea turtles, has died after being wounded in an Israeli strike.

Khalil, 76, was injured when her house on Mansouri beach, near the southern city of Tyre, was hit during Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon two weeks ago.

She died on Friday after several days in hospital, according to a local environmental group.

Her death came as Israeli air strikes intensified across southern Lebanon, raising concerns about renewed violence despite diplomatic efforts to maintain a fragile regional peace.

The BBC has reached out to the Israeli military for a response.

“She is a deeply committed environmental defender,” Hisham Younes, the founder and president of Green Southerners, told the BBC.

“She used to talk about the beach like it was a person. Her bond to the sunset, her bond to the water and the turtles….she was really into conservation, and into the soul, the spirit of conservation.”

For more than 25 years, Khalil dedicated herself to protecting endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles that nest along Lebanon’s southern coast.

Her conservation work began after what her loved ones described as a life-changing encounter with a turtle laying eggs on Mansouri beach in 1999.

A refugee of the Lebanese civil war, Khalil was living in the Netherlands but had returned to visit her family’s seaside home.

She was on the beach one night and saw a green turtle laying eggs on the beach.

After learning that sea turtle populations in Lebanon were under threat, she committed herself to protecting them and later returned permanently to the country.

Fast forward a year to 2000, and she helped establish the Orange House Project, an eco-tourism and conservation initiative overlooking Mansouri beach.

Aoun said preserving Lebanese sovereignty over all of its territory was his top priority, and that Lebanese negotiators would seek an end to Israeli attacks, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel, deployment of Lebanese troops along the Israeli border, and the beginning of reconstruction process, according to a statement from his office.

BBC Arabic’s correspondent Carine Torbey reports from the border town of Khiam, as the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon goes into its second day.

The Lebanese army has set up a barrier to stop residents from returning to their homes in Khiam, after loud explosions continued to be heard in towns that are partly under Israeli occupation.

On Friday, the Lebanese President, Joseph Aoun, declared his country was entering a new phase which could transform the temporary ceasefire into a permanent peace settlement.