On April 22, the Israeli regime assassinated yet another journalist. Her name was Amal Khalil. She was a well-known Lebanese journalist, born during the early years of the last Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, who spent years documenting the lives of people in the south of the country amid Israeli invasion and bombardment.
Amal was well-known and beloved across Lebanon. As her brother, Ali Khalil, said at her funeral, she was present in every home.
For two years, Amal received direct threats from the Israeli regime. In one interview, she recalled a call from a Mossad agent who threatened to sever her head from her shoulders if she didn’t stop reporting from the south. They knew intimate details about her life – they wanted her to know that she was being surveilled.
Yet, she continued to report, knowing that any day the Israeli regime could follow through on its threats. Amal was the type of person Israel fears the most: the one who cannot be intimidated into silence, the one who cannot be sent cowering into a corner, the one who openly defies brutal Israeli power.
There is little doubt that the Israeli army targeted her directly. Al Akhbar, the outlet Amal worked for, released details of her killing. According to them, Amal was on assignment near the strategic town of Bint Jbeil, which she had often reported on in the past.
Bint Jbeil was the site of a key battle between Israeli regime forces and Hezbollah fighters before the ceasefire. It is a symbolic site of resistance for many Lebanese – in the 2006 invasion, it successfully repelled many attempts by Israeli regime forces to conquer it.
Amal was travelling in a car with freelance photographer Zeinab Farraj when a vehicle in front of them was hit by an Israeli drone. The two women sought shelter in a nearby building where they called relatives and colleagues for help. The building was bombed by Israeli forces not long after.
The Lebanese prime minister put out a statement calling on the Red Cross to intervene. The organisation sent out a team which was able to rescue Zeinab, who was wounded, from the building. They came under fire, so were unable to recover Amal. When they eventually returned, they found her dead.
Amal’s assassination is chillingly reminiscent of the killing of veteran Palestinian journalist and long-term media correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh. Four years ago, she was also reporting from a site of symbolic resistance against invading Israeli regime forces – the Palestinian city of Jenin. She was shot in the head while attempting to shelter from Israeli fire with a colleague.
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