Lebanon bids farewell to Amal Khalil, journalist killed by Israel: What to know |
Lebanon bids farewell to Amal Khalil, journalist killed by Israel: What to know
Khalil's death in a targeted strike on a house where she and a colleague took cover sparked widespread condemnation by Lebanese officials and international media groups.
Beatrice Farhat
Apr 23, 2026
Amal Khalil, a veteran correspondent for the daily newspaper Al-Akhbar, in the southern Lebanese border village of Jebbayn in 2024. — AFP via Getty Images
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BEIRUT — The killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon on Wednesday prompted a wave of condemnation in the country on the eve of another round of Lebanon-Israel talks in Washington.
Lebanon bid farewell to Khalil on Thursday, as hundreds marched in her funeral in her hometown of Baysariyyeh in the south.
لحظات الوداع الأخيرة للشهيدة الصحافية آمال خليل#مباشر #الجديد pic.twitter.com/8Zb1xNrAmB
— AL Jadeed Tv (@AlJadeed_TV) April 23, 2026What happened: Khalil, a journalist working with the local Al-Akhbar news outlet since 2006, was driving a car in the village of al-Tiri, in the Bint Jbeil district, accompanied by photojournalist Zeinab Faraj, when a strike hit a vehicle in front of them around 3:00 p.m., killing the two passengers, according to Al-Akhbar.
The two journalists, covering the war between Israel and Hezbollah since March, took cover in a house in the village. A little over an hour later, Israel launched an air attack, directly striking the house where the women were sheltering. Rescue workers rushed to the scene, where they were able to retrieve the bodies of the two people killed in the earlier strike and found Faraj seriously wounded.
As the first responders looked for Khalil, Israel launched stun grenades and opened fired, preventing them from continuing the search effort. Faraj would remain trapped under the rubble for nearly six hours. Her body was retrieved shortly before midnight.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military denied that it had targeted journalists in south Lebanon and said that its forces had not impeded rescue teams, adding that the incident was under investigation. In a statement on Wednesday, the army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Ella Waweya, said the military had struck a car after two vehicles exited a building used by Hezbollah and, allegedly in........