An Israeli strike that killed 3 Lebanese journalists was most likely deliberate

Smoke and flame rise after an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
JERUSALEM — A senior Israeli officer has resigned following the deaths of two people, including a 70-year-old Israeli man, in a Hezbollah ambush last week in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military has launched an investigation into last Wednesday’s incident, in which 70-year-old Zeev Erlich was killed along with a 20-year-old soldier.
They are trying to determine, among other things, who allowed Erlich into the combat zone with the forces and why he was allowed to enter.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Col. Yoav Yarom, the chief of staff of the army’s Golani infantry brigade, said he was stepping down.
Yarom, who was wounded in the incident, said a “false and far from the truth narrative” has emerged.
Nonetheless, he said “in light of the values upon which I was raised … I believe I must take a commander’s responsibility for the event.” He did not specify his role.
According to Israeli media reports, Erlich was not on active duty when he was shot, but was wearing a military uniform and had a weapon. The army said he was a reservist with the rank of major and identified him as a “fallen soldier” when it announced his death.
Erlich was a well-known West Bank settler and researcher of Jewish history. Media reports said he was permitted to enter Lebanon to explore a local archaeological site.
The military said the investigation is continuing.
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike that killed three journalists and wounded others in Lebanon last month was most likely a deliberate attack on civilians and an apparent war crime, an international human rights group said Monday.
The Oct. 25 airstrike killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon in one of the deadliest attacks on the media since the Israel-Hezbollah war began 13 months ago.
Eleven other journalists have been killed and eight wounded since then, Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
Human Rights Watch determined that Israeli forces carried out the Oct. 25 attack using an air-dropped bomb equipped with a U.S.-produced Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM, guidance kit.
The group said the U.S. government should suspend weapons transfers to Israel because of the military’s repeated “unlawful attacks on civilians, for which U.S. officials may be complicit in war crimes.”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the report.
Human Rights Watch said that it found remnants at the site and reviewed photographs of pieces collected by the resort owner and determined that they were consistent with a JDAM guidance kit assembled and sold by the U.S. company Boeing.
The JDAM is affixed to air-dropped bombs and allows them to be guided to a target by using satellite coordinates, making the weapon accurate to within several meters, the group said.