And to examine that incident and also the challenges facing journalists reporting in Lebanon and the larger Middle East right now, we turn to Sera Kuda, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Middle East and North Africa Regional Director.

Sera Kuda, thanks very much.

Welcome back to the News Hour.

One of the journalists killed in southern Lebanon was Ali Hassan Shweb.

And the Israeli military released this statement,

saying it had targeted him, but calling him, quote, a terrorist in the intelligence unit

of Hezbollah's Rodwan force, accusing him of aiding Hezbollah in various ways while working

as a journalist, and in 2020, officially joining Hezbollah's military wing.

What can you tell us about him and Al-Munar, the outlet he worked for?

It is not a secret that Al-Munar TV is affiliated to Hezbollah and owned by Hezbollah. But that does not make journalists who work with this media outlet or this TV station terrorists or in any way

providing intelligence secrets. They are still civilians. IDF did not provide any kind of evidence

that Ali or the other two journalists are participating in any military action.

There is a key principle under international humanitarian law.

Journalists are considered civilians and therefore they are protected from any kind of attacks

unless they were in any way participating in conflict with an army.

But until now, IDF did not provide any kind of evidence that Ali Shoeb is part of Hizbullah

or he has been part of the military.

This is a pattern.

It's not an isolated incident and it became a playbook by Israeli authorities and the IDF. We saw it in Gaza since 2003 where they were killing journalists and after they killed them,

they smear them saying that they are terrorists and they were part of Hamas or participating in military actions.

We mentioned three journalists killed. Another one was photojournalist Mohammed Fatuni.

The third journalist killed was Fatima Fatuni, that is Mohammed's sister. And the Israeli military does not say that it targeted her,

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