How Israel targeted and killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil — The Take

[0:00] Today, threatened, tracked, and killed while reporting on Lebanon. [0:05] We can't get out. Somebody please contact the UN, contact UNIFIL, contact the Israelis. [0:11] Like, we need help getting out of here. [0:14] That help didn't come. [0:16] What actually did come was another Israeli airstrike. [0:20] As another beloved journalist in Lebanon is killed by Israel, [0:24] what hope is there for accountability? [0:26] I'm Malika Bilal, and this is The Take. [0:29] Hey, everyone. Before we go on with today's show, [0:38] remember to leave us a comment telling us what you think about this episode [0:41] and what stories you want us to do next. [0:44] And if you're listening on a podcast app, leave us a review telling us where you're listening from [0:49] and give us a five-star rating while you're there. [0:52] It helps other people discover the show. [0:57] My name is Heidi Pett. I am the Syria correspondent for Al Jazeera English, [1:02] but at the moment I've been reporting from Lebanon since the war started here. [1:05] So, Heidi, welcome to The Take. It's really good to have you on. [1:09] You and I are speaking on Thursday, just hours after you attended the funeral for Amal Khalil, [1:15] who's a journalist who was killed by an Israeli strike in South Lebanon yesterday [1:20] in the middle of what is ostensibly a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. [1:25] So, let's start with who she was, because I know she'd been a journalist in Lebanon for many years [1:32] and was a recognizable face for people there. [1:35] But for people outside of the country, what can you tell us about her? [1:39] Yeah, so Amal Khalil was a really well-loved and respected journalist here. [1:44] She is from South Lebanon. [1:46] She has spent many years reporting on South Lebanon. [1:49] So, not just during this war, but also during the 2024 war. [1:58] She worked for a newspaper called Al-Akhbar, and she was well-known not just for her reporting, [2:03] but also because she had received threats during the last war, actually, [2:07] from an Israeli phone number telling her that she should cease her work, [2:12] that if she wanted to keep her head on her shoulders, in fact, that she should leave Lebanon. [2:17] Do we know who those threats were from? [2:20] Yeah, so I actually have the phone number, and I was speaking with the person [2:25] who sent them to her. [2:28] It's an Israeli sort of commentator and media personality. [2:33] His name is Gal Gideon Ben Abraham, and he was unrepentant, basically, about those threats. [2:39] He kind of doubled down. [2:40] So, he had been threatening her, and then she's killed in this strike while she was on location [2:47] to do her job, to report with another journalist. [2:51] So, tell us about what happened. [2:55] What do we know? [2:56] So, what we know is that Amal and her colleague Zainab, who's a freelance photojournalist [3:01] who she was working and traveling with that day, they were part of a convoy of vehicles. [3:06] They were working in South Lebanon, covering the destruction, including the ongoing destruction [3:11] and detonations during this ceasefire. [3:14] And while they were driving through the town of Atiri, the car in front of them was hit [3:19] by an Israeli strike. [3:21] And there were two people in that car, two civilians, who were both immediately killed, [3:26] from what we understand. [3:28] Now, Amal and Zainab then fled their vehicle. [3:30] They got out of their car. [3:33] And at that point, Amal sent a voice note to her family, explaining what had happened, [3:39] right? [3:39] Saying, look, there's been a drone strike, but really trying to reassure them and saying, [3:44] you can hear her voice shaking. [3:46] But you can also hear her trying to reassure her loved ones and saying, like, I'm okay, [3:56] I'm okay. [3:57] But what happened after that is that they were kind of stuck. [4:00] They were pinned down in this location and they took shelter in a nearby building. [4:05] So, she was calling members of the civil defense who couldn't reach her because they didn't [4:10] have permission through what's called the mechanism. [4:12] So, down here in southern Lebanon, civil defense, ambulances, and NGOs, they have to coordinate [4:18] not just with the Lebanese army and Hezbollah, but also actually with the Israeli military. [4:23] So, they'll send a notification and say, we want to go to this village or we need to [4:27] access this location, there's people trapped. [4:30] And sometimes, eventually, they'll respond and say, okay, received, we understand where [4:34] you're going. [4:34] They'll never really guarantee your safety, but they'll at least acknowledge that they've [4:37] received your message. [4:38] But the civil defense teams didn't have any acknowledgement and there were ongoing Israeli [4:44] strikes. [4:45] So, what happened is that Amal and Zainab, they were messaging and on the phone back and [4:50] forth with civil defense who were telling them, we can't get to you, but can you get to us? [4:54] And so, they went back towards the car to try to leave. [4:58] And at that point, an Israeli drone actually dropped a grenade on them and injured Amal and [5:05] damaged the car as well. [5:07] And so, they ran back into a different building and again, they were taking shelter there. [5:11] So, that was at around sort of a bit after three o'clock in the afternoon by this point. [5:16] And again, at that point, we've got messages back and forth between Amal and her family [5:21] and civil defense. [5:22] And also, she was contacting her editors at the newspaper desperately saying, I'm stuck [5:27] here. [5:27] There's Israeli strikes. [5:29] We can't get out. [5:30] Somebody please contact the UN, contact UNIFIL, contact the Israelis. [5:35] Like, we need help getting out of here. [5:37] That help didn't come. [5:39] What actually did come was another Israeli airstrike which targeted the house where Amal and Zainab [5:47] were hiding. [5:48] Now, they had actually split up at this point. [5:50] They were hiding in separate parts of the house, maybe knowing or expecting that something [5:55] like this might happen. [5:56] And so, hoping that one of them would survive. [5:59] And that's exactly what happened, as far as we know right now. [6:05] What do we know about the status and condition of Amal's colleague, Zainab Faraj? [6:10] Yeah. [6:11] So, the Red Cross teams were eventually able to get to them. [6:14] And they were able to pull Zainab out from the rubble. [6:18] She was really seriously injured at that point. [6:20] And they were also able to extricate the two civilians. [6:23] They were able to recover their bodies from the vehicle that was the subject of the initial [6:26] strike. [6:27] But they couldn't find Amal. [6:30] She was missing. [6:32] And what happened then is that the ambulance actually came under fire. [6:35] So, the Israelis targeted it with a stun grenade and they fired directly on it. [6:39] And so, they had to flee the scene in a hurry, right? [6:43] They couldn't find Amal. [6:44] They were coming under fire. [6:45] There was no guarantee that another airstrike wasn't coming. [6:48] So, they got out of there. [6:50] They took Zainab to hospital where she underwent emergency surgery. [6:54] We understand she's stable, but she's still in a really bad way. [6:57] But all this time, Amal was still missing. [6:58] They didn't know if she was alive under the rubble. [7:00] They didn't know if she was dead, if she was injured. [7:02] And they needed to get back to her. [7:03] And it took hours, again, for them to get the permission that they needed to go back to [7:08] the site and actually start looking for her. [7:12] And when they finally found her, that was a process that took hours of digging through [7:17] rubble. [7:18] Exactly. [7:19] So, they needed to go back with heavy equipment. [7:21] They went back in with an excavator, actually, because Amal, unfortunately, the part of the [7:26] building that she was hiding in took the brunt of that airstrike. [7:30] And so, it was completely collapsed on top of her. [7:32] So, they had to dig her out. [7:33] They didn't find her until after 11 p.m., when they were eventually able to recover her body. [7:39] Well, Heidi, these details are shocking and tragic. [7:47] And I know that you learned of many of them because you spoke to the family members who [7:53] were getting these updates as they came in, because she was sending voice notes, as you [8:00] mentioned, to her family. [8:01] You were at the funeral, and you spoke to her brother. [8:05] What was that conversation like? [8:07] I mean, it was heartbreaking, right? [8:08] Because this is a man whose sister had just died. [8:11] She didn't have to die. [8:13] Those two journalists didn't die in the initial strike, right? [8:16] The one that hit the vehicle in front of them, they survived that. [8:19] They took cover. [8:20] They were hiding. [8:21] The Ministry of Health, actually, the language that they used was that they were pursued by [8:26] Israeli airstrikes. [8:27] And so, he was really strong when we were speaking to him. [8:32] But he was angry. [8:35] Unfortunately, if there was movement, or if Israel had not denied permission to enter to [8:40] rescue Amal, Amal would be standing in my place speaking, and it wouldn't be me speaking [8:46] on her behalf. [8:47] And what he told us is that if immediate access had been given after that first strike, if [8:54] the rescue teams had been able to get to her, that his sister would still be alive. [8:59] And, you know, he again pointed out, you know, my sister was a journalist. [9:03] She's protected under international human rights law. [9:06] But she's obviously not the first or the only Lebanese journalist to die, not even the first [9:11] or the only to die this month as a result of targeted Israeli strikes. [9:16] And part of the reason that he was keen to share that with us is to prove Amal was alive [9:22] after that first strike. [9:24] And she told them she was fine. [9:26] It was only after the second airstrike that her phone went offline and that nobody was able [9:31] to reach her. [9:31] So this was an example of what's known as a double-tap strike. [9:38] Is that right? [9:39] Yeah, exactly. [9:40] And there have been loads of those in southern Lebanon, or not even just in south Lebanon, [9:44] but across the country. [9:45] You know, this is a playbook that we have seen the Israelis use in Gaza. [9:50] It's a playbook that was used during the 2024 war here in Lebanon. [9:53] And it's one that we have seen again and again. [9:55] In fact, it's not even just double-taps. [9:57] We sometimes have triple or even quadruple attacks as, like, successive waves of first [10:03] responders, whether it's ambulances, firemen, paramedics, or even just people at the scene [10:07] try to go and help. [10:08] They get hit again and again and again. [10:12] Heidi, you mentioned the playbook. [10:13] And another angle of this playbook that we've seen again and again, both in Gaza and in Lebanon, [10:19] is these messages that come to specifically journalists, warning them or telling them [10:26] that they need to leave, they need to get out of an area, or they will be killed, their [10:29] families will be killed. [10:30] How do you make sense of the messages that we know Ahmed reportedly received, given that [10:37] they didn't come from an obscure place, they come from someone who has named himself, but [10:42] he's not in the government? [10:44] How do you square that? [10:45] I mean, you're right. [10:46] It is different. [10:46] Sometimes journalists received messages or warnings, particularly in Gaza, that were [10:51] identifiably from the Israeli military, or they seemed to be on behalf of the Israeli [10:56] state. [10:56] This was from a private citizen. [10:58] I asked him how he got Amal's number. [11:00] He wouldn't tell me. [11:01] After I said, are you aware that Amal has now been killed in an Israeli airstrike? [11:05] His response was essentially like, she had it coming. [11:08] Because the attitude that he has, and that I think, it's also the attitude that the Israeli [11:14] military has, right, is that these journalists are aligned with Hezbollah or with Hamas. [11:19] They say these kind of things with no evidence. [11:21] In fact, in the last targeted strike against journalists, it was journalists from al-Manar [11:25] and al-Mayadeen. [11:26] Now, Manar and Mayadeen, yes, they are affiliated with Hezbollah, but that doesn't mean that their [11:32] journalists are not civilians. [11:33] It doesn't mean that they're not protected by international human rights law. [11:37] They are not soldiers. [11:38] They are not fighters. [11:39] They're not militants. [11:40] They're civilian journalists doing their jobs. [11:43] But after they targeted and killed those three journalists, the Israeli military put out [11:47] a photo, which they later had to admit was photoshopped, saying that one of them, Ali, [11:53] was a member of Hezbollah's elite Radwan forces. [11:56] So there's this attempt to smear journalists who are merely doing their jobs on the front [12:02] lines, covering what's happening in their country, and try to associate them with armed [12:05] groups when they are civilians doing their job. [12:10] How has the Israeli government responded to this specific killing and the injuring of another [12:15] journalist in this strike? [12:17] Yeah. [12:17] So we had statements from the Israeli military in the aftermath of these attacks, and they [12:22] described the first attack as, you know, as targeting what they described as terrorists. [12:28] And then after it became clear that Amal had been killed and that Zainab had been injured [12:33] in their second strike, they said that they don't target journalists, which when you look [12:39] at the numbers of journalists who have been killed in Gaza, when you look at the pattern of [12:43] attacks here in Lebanon and the number of journalists who've been killed here as well, it just doesn't [12:50] really make sense. [12:51] And there's been really widespread condemnation here in Lebanon as well, right? [12:54] Like we had the president who came out today and described this as deliberate, consistent [13:00] targeting of journalists. [13:02] And he said that that was a deliberate attempt by Israel to conceal the truth of their aggression [13:08] here in Lebanon. [13:09] And what of the responsibility of allowing the paramedics and the ambulances to be able [13:18] to get to the injured? [13:20] Has the Israeli military said anything about that? [13:23] Yeah. [13:24] So again, they denied that they prevented rescue teams from reaching the location. [13:28] But the wording was quite careful, right? [13:31] It was sort of four hours after that airstrike, and it was actually after the rescue teams had [13:36] finally been able to reach the location that the Israeli military put out a statement in [13:41] the present tense saying, we're not preventing rescue teams from getting to the location. [13:45] They didn't say anything about the fact that they had been for the previous four or so [13:49] hours. [13:50] Hmm. [13:52] So you mentioned the Lebanese government's response. [13:54] Is there any actual recourse here? [13:57] So, you know, the Lebanese government has said that they will be attempting to get recourse [14:03] through the mechanisms of international law. [14:05] After previous attacks on journalists and medics, they've said that they would be making complaints [14:12] to the UN. [14:13] It's difficult, right? [14:14] Because Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court. [14:17] And so in the way that you might normally take a country or a military leader to court for [14:23] war crimes or crimes against humanity, there isn't necessarily a mechanism to do that. [14:28] And so that means that there has been very little accountability, that this has continued to [14:35] happen basically with impunity. [14:36] The only accountability that might come is sort of international condemnation and then [14:41] whatever acts individual countries might take in response to that, whether it's stopping [14:45] weapons shipments and things like that. [14:47] But in terms of actual concrete mechanisms that journalists here in Lebanon could use, or indeed [14:53] that the Lebanese government could use, yes, they can complain to the UN. [14:56] But there aren't really that many formal mechanisms. [15:01] You know, Heidi, I hear the very idyllic, peaceful sounds of birds tweeting in the background of [15:09] your shot. [15:10] There's water lapping on the shore, and it seems like a moment of calm. [15:15] And yet we know it's not because of what we're talking about. [15:20] So in the backdrop to this, there is a meeting expected to take place today, Thursday, in Washington [15:26] D.C. between Lebanon and Israel, where it's been reported that they're going to ask for [15:30] an extension to the ceasefire. [15:33] What impact could this, this cessation of calm in the middle of what's supposed to be a ceasefire, [15:42] affect negotiations? [15:44] Will it? [15:45] I mean, it's difficult to say, right? [15:47] Because we're talking about a ceasefire, and yeah, it feels and sounds calm here at the [15:51] moment. [15:51] But actually, all day, we have been hearing the sound of explosions, which is Israel demolishing [15:57] homes. [15:58] The reason I sat here, actually, is because you can sometimes see it in the background. [16:01] You see plumes of smoke along these hills behind me. [16:04] And that is Israel. [16:06] You know, they've laid explosives in people's homes and in other buildings in the villages, [16:11] which they occupied on the hills behind me. [16:13] And you hear the sound of those detonations. [16:16] In fact, one of them, it was so large, you know, they're quite far away. [16:19] One of them was so large, it shook the windows, even at this distance. [16:23] And we could hear that even all throughout Amal's funeral. [16:26] You know, she'd gone to southern Lebanon to document Israel's destruction and the continuing [16:32] destruction even during the ceasefire. [16:33] And she was killed while she was doing that. [16:35] But, you know, in terms of the ceasefire, it continues to be broken by Israel. [16:41] And Hezbollah has now also actually started firing back. [16:44] So they've said in direct response to this, they've been launching drone strikes and artillery [16:49] and rocket fire at some of the Israeli troops. [16:53] So, yes, it's a ceasefire, but it's a very uneasy, it feels very fragile, this ceasefire. [17:01] And so, yeah, we've got these talks that will be happening in Washington. [17:05] So they're at the ambassadorial level. [17:07] So it's Lebanon's ambassador to the US, Israel's ambassador to the US, and then a couple of [17:11] US officials, including Mike Huckabee, who will be present. [17:15] They're not negotiations at this point. [17:17] That's the meetings that are happening at this point is basically to set up negotiations [17:22] down the line. [17:24] And so what might come out of this is dates for future meetings. [17:28] And, you know, the hope on one side of Lebanese politics, at least, is that these meetings [17:37] and the fact that the US ostensibly wants them to succeed might apply some pressure on [17:43] Israel to at least tone things down a bit. [17:46] So in the last week, yes, there's been continued Israeli military activity in South Lebanon, [17:50] but there haven't been strikes on the capital or its suburbs. [17:53] So it's a decrease in hostilities. [17:55] It's a decrease in violence, but it's not a real ceasefire yet. [17:58] And the hope for many here is that if these meetings lead to actual negotiations, that that [18:04] would then lead to a real ceasefire and eventually an Israeli withdrawal. [18:09] But it's not guaranteed that that's going to happen. [18:12] Well, finally, Heidi, we know these details, harrowing details of what these attacks are [18:19] like because of the work of journalists like you. [18:22] So thank you for your reporting. [18:25] And we also know that disproportionately, the people facing the brunt of what it's like [18:32] to bring us this information are Lebanese journalists who are on those front lines. [18:38] And so I want to end this conversation back on Amal Khalil and her legacy, sharing with [18:45] the world what she was trying to share with the world through her news and through her [18:48] journalism. [18:49] How was she remembered at her funeral? [18:53] So Amal, she was really, she was well-loved. [18:55] She's one of four sisters, four brothers. [18:58] She comes from a big family who all loved her really dearly. [19:01] And she's also beloved. [19:03] Whoa. [19:05] That was a big one. [19:07] Was that wind or a blast? [19:08] No, that was a blast. [19:09] And actually, that was enormous. [19:11] I can see a really large trail of smoke on the hills behind me here. [19:17] So that looks like a detonation. [19:21] So much for a ceasefire. [19:23] Well, exactly. [19:25] But she was really beloved by her colleagues who knew her. [19:31] You know, journalists working here in South Lebanon, they work together, they share rides, [19:36] they help each other out. [19:37] It's a real sense of solidarity down here. [19:40] And they're united in their purpose, right? [19:43] Which is to show what's happening to their country, to document what Israel is doing here. [19:48] And it was a real, it was a moment of sadness, but also real solidarity and this sense of purpose. [19:56] And people were talking about carrying on the work that she worked so hard to do that she lost her life doing. [20:03] And that should never have happened. [20:05] Her funeral people, they were holding her press vest and her press helmet aloft over her coffin, you know, [20:11] as she was being laid to rest. [20:13] And, you know, they called her, you know, the flower of the South. [20:17] And she is known as, yeah, as a really dedicated and principled journalist, but also a really dedicated and principled person. [20:25] I think there's a sort of seriousness, right? [20:27] That it is sometimes forced upon local journalists when they become war reporters. [20:33] You know, people like me, we kind of, we choose this life. [20:36] We come to places to report on conflict. [20:38] But when it happens in your own country, it is such a heavier burden. [20:42] It's such a heavier responsibility. [20:44] But it's one that from talking to people who knew her that she really carried with a lot of grace. [20:50] Heidi, thank you for sharing your reporting on this. [20:56] We appreciate it. [20:56] Thank you. [20:57] Thank you.