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Arab World

Israel Condemned by Media Groups over Gaza Journalist 'Massacre'

The biggest toll of journalists killed on duty was in Gaza. (AFP)
The biggest toll of journalists killed on duty was in Gaza. (AFP)
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Israel Condemned by Media Groups over Gaza Journalist 'Massacre'

The biggest toll of journalists killed on duty was in Gaza. (AFP)
The biggest toll of journalists killed on duty was in Gaza. (AFP)

Israel has been accused of carrying out a "massacre" of journalists in Gaza in two separate reports from media freedom organizations this week that analyzed the deaths of reporters worldwide this year.
According to calculations from Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published on Thursday, the Israeli army killed 18 journalists as they were working this year -- 16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon -- around a third of the total worldwide of 54, AFP reported.
"Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years," RSF said in its annual report, which covers data up to December 1.
The organization has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for "war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army".
It said that in total "more than 145" journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths.
RSF described the number of killings as "an unprecedented massacre".
With foreign reporters prevented from entering the territory and local reporters being deliberately targeted, Gaza was "a place where journalism itself is threatened with extinction", RSF said.
In a separate report published Tuesday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.
The IFJ and RSF figures vary because of different methodologies used to calculate the tolls, but the IFJ used similar language to condemn Israel's military.
"The war in Gaza and Lebanon once again highlights the massacre suffered by Palestinian (55), Lebanese (6) and Syrian (1) media professionals, representing 60 percent of all journalists killed in 2024," the IFJ said.
Israel denies that it intentionally harms journalists, but admits that some have been killed in air strikes on military targets.
"We don't accept these figures. We don't believe they are correct," Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference on Wednesday.
"We know that probably most journalists inside Gaza are operating under the auspices of Hamas, and until Hamas is destroyed, they will not be allowed to report freely," he said.
In some cases, Israel has accused reporters of being "terror operatives", such as when it killed a Gaza-based Al Jazeera staff journalist and freelancer in January -- allegations condemned by the Qatari news network.
Al Jazeera, which has been banned in Israel, says the Israeli military has been deliberately targeting its staff since the start of the war because of the channel's coverage.
- 'Under review' -
In Lebanon, the two deaths counted this year by RSF were caused by an October 25 Israeli strike on a tourism complex in the southern town of Hasbaya where more than a dozen journalists working for Lebanese and Arab media outlets were sleeping.
Human Rights Watch condemned it as "apparent war crime". The Israeli army said it had targeted Hezbollah militants but said the strike was "under review".
No results have been published from a review promised over the killing of a Reuters journalist and the wounding of six other reporters, including two AFP staff in Lebanon in October 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists highlighted on the one-year anniversary of the attack.
An investigation by AFP and Reuters over that incident concluded that the journalists, who were all wearing helmets and bulletproof vests marked "Press" in an area without obvious militant activity, were targeted by Israeli tank fire.
RSF only records journalist deaths in its report if they have been "proven to be directly related to their professional activity".
Following the 16 deaths in Gaza, the deadliest countries for journalists in 2024 were Pakistan with seven deaths, followed by Bangladesh and Mexico with five each.
In 2023, the number of journalists killed worldwide stood at 45 in the same January-December period.

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Arab World

US Embassy in Beirut Warns of Possible Iran Threat to Universities in Lebanon

People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)
People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)
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US Embassy in Beirut Warns of Possible Iran Threat to Universities in Lebanon

People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)
People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)

The US embassy in Beirut said on ‌Friday ‌that Iran ‌and ⁠its aligned armed ⁠groups "may intend to target ⁠universities ‌in Lebanon".

In ‌a security ‌alert, ‌the embassy also ‌urged US citizens to depart ⁠Lebanon "while ⁠commercial flight options remain available".

Lebanon was dragged into the conflict in the Middle East when Iran-backed Hezbollah shot rockets at Israel in retaliation to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes killed 23 people and wounded 98, the Lebanese health ministry said Friday.

The ministry said that the overall death toll includes 125 children and 91 women, since Israel launched intense airstrikes across Lebanon after the Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran on March 2. The strikes have also wounded 4,138 others.

Among those killed are 53 health workers, while Israeli strikes have targeted 83 emergency medical service facilities, the health ministry said.

Arab World

UN Force Says 3 Peacekeepers Wounded in Blast Inside South Lebanon Position

UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Force Says 3 Peacekeepers Wounded in Blast Inside South Lebanon Position

UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said a blast hit one of its positions and wounded three peacekeepers on Friday, the third such incident in a week.

"This afternoon, an explosion inside a UN position... injured three peacekeepers, two seriously. They are all currently being evacuated to hospital. We do not yet know the origin of the explosion," UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said in a statement.

"UNIFIL reminds all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers, including by avoiding combat activities nearby that could put them in danger," she added.

The UN force is deployed in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war for a month and where Israeli troops are pressing a ground invasion.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon, as well as the ground operation.

UNIFIL had said that a peacekeeper was killed on Sunday evening when a projectile of unknown origin "exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit al-Qusayr".

The following day, UNIFIL said an "explosion of unknown origin" destroyed a peacekeeping vehicle, killing two more Indonesian troops.

It said investigations had been launched into both incidents.

A UN security source told AFP this week that Israeli fire was the source of Sunday's attack, while a mine may have caused the following day's deadly blast.

Israel's military denied responsibility for Monday's incident.

"A comprehensive operational examination indicates that no explosive device was placed in the area by army troops, and that no troops were present in the area at all," the statement said.

According to the UN, 97 force members have been killed in violence since UNIFIL was first established to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in 1978.

The mandate of the force, which for decades has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon, finishes at the end of this year.

Arab World

RSF in Sudan Kill at Least 10 People in Hospital Drone Attack, Medical Group Says

Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
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RSF in Sudan Kill at Least 10 People in Hospital Drone Attack, Medical Group Says

Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)

Sudan ’s paramilitary forces killed at least 10 people on Thursday in a drone attack that hit a hospital in the south-central part of the country, said a medical group.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, launched two drone strikes on al-Jabalain Hospital in the White Nile province, hitting an operating theater and a maternity ward.

The strikes, the latest in an intensifying drone warfare between the army and the RSF, killed 10 people, including seven medical staffers, and injured at least 19 people. Those injured were transferred to a hospital in Kosti, which is around 50 miles (80 kilometers) away, said MSF.

Salah Moussa, a senior staffer in the nursing department at al-Jabalain Hospital, was injured in his leg in one of the two strikes. He told The Associated Press by phone on Friday that those killed include the hospital’s general manager, the administrative manager, several policemen and a citizen.

Moussa said he was in his house near the hospital when he heard the sound of explosions at around 11 a.m. on Thursday.

“I rushed to the hospital when I heard the explosion and while we were helping evacuate three injured staff members, another drone strike was launched and I got hit and lost consciousness,” he said. “The hospital lost all its medical and administrative leadership in this attack.”

The strikes are the latest in a series of attacks on the health care system in Sudan that continues to be hit hard during the ongoing war between the army and the RSF that broke out in April 2023. The World Health Organization said in March that over 200 attacks have targeted health care since the war began. Most recently, 70 people were killed, including at least 13 children, in a strike on a hospital in Sudan’s western Darfur region last month.

The nearly three-year conflict in Sudan killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be much higher.

“The attack is even more appalling as it occurred during a children’s immunization campaign,” the MSF said of the strike on the al-Jabalain hospital.

Meanwhile, Emergency Lawyers, a local rights group, said Thursday that the attacks also targeted a medical supply depot in Rabak, the capital city of the White Nile province.

The Emergency Lawyers said the “recurring pattern” of drone attacks by the warring parties since March in the provinces of South Kordofan, Blue Nile, East, Central and South Darfur displaced more people.

On Friday, Khalid Aleisir, the minister of culture, information, antiquities and Tourism condemned the attack and called for designating the RSF a terrorist organization and prosecuting its members.

“We also hold regional backers directly responsible for perpetuating this violent campaign through military and logistical support, including advanced weaponry and unmanned aerial systems, which have escalated violence and targeted civilians,” he wrote on X.

Sudan Doctors Network, a local group that monitors war violence, called the attack a “deliberate assault on health facilities and unarmed civilians” that further worsens an already deteriorating health sector in the country.

“MSF is outraged by these repeated attacks on health care, which have escalated dangerously in recent weeks,” said Esperanza Santos, MSF head of emergencies for Sudan in the group’s statement on Thursday. “Health facilities, medical staff, and patients must always be protected. We call on RSF and SAF to immediately stop this spiral of violence against medical facilities.”

A surge in drone strikes in the Sudanese region of Kordofan has taken a growing toll on civilians and hampered aid operations, analysts and humanitarian workers previously said.