Rights Groups Call Killing of Lebanese Journalist a War Crime

Investigators say Israel knowingly targeted two civilian reporters in an April strike

By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost

Amal Khalil went to work covering a war and did not come home. The Lebanese journalist was killed and her colleague Zeinab Faraj was injured in an Israeli strike in April — and now three human rights organizations say the evidence shows it was no accident.

Investigations by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Lebanese group Legal Agenda concluded that Israel "deliberately and directly" attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians, according to the groups' findings released Thursday. The organizations are calling for the strike to be investigated as a war crime. Human Rights Watch went further, urging governments to halt arms sales to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on the Israeli officials it holds responsible.

This is a serious allegation resting on the investigative work of three advocacy organizations, not a court or a neutral international body — a distinction worth keeping in mind. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have long records investigating conduct in this conflict, but they are not disinterested parties in the broader debate over the war, and Israel's government has not yet publicly responded to this specific finding in the material available. What is clear is that a journalist doing her job is dead, and the question of why now sits with prosecutors, if any decide to take it up.

FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE -

— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian.

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