Air attack left journalist trapped. He died waiting for authorization for his rescue

An Israeli attack that allegedly targeted two Hezbollah operatives left Amal Khalil trapped in the rubble of a building. Khalil even managed to call his sister. It was his last call. He died while rescue teams were waiting for authorization to arrive at the scene.

A reconstruction of the last hours of the Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil concluded that rescue teams were prevented from reaching the reporter during a decisive period in which she was still alivefollowing a sequence of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

Khalil, 42, died on April 22, in the village of al-Tiri, about six kilometers from the border with Israel.

According to the investigation, based on medical records, telephone calls, satellite and field images, as well as interviews with survivors, witnesses, rescuers and military officials, the journalist was injured and trapped in the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli attack.

For about two hoursteams from the Lebanese Army, Civil Defense and Red Cross waited for authorization to move forwardthrough international intermediaries.

When this authorization arrived, around 8:15 p.m., Khalil had already died. Medical records indicate the 7pm as time of death.

The journalist was reporting for the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar (“As Notícias”), close to Hezbollah, accompanied by another Lebanese reporter, Zeinab Faraj. Both had traveled to document the effects of Israeli attacks and controlled demolitions on locations in southern Lebanon.

In another vehicle they followed Ali Nabil Bazi and Mohammed Al-Kourani, which, according to Israel, would be Hezbollah military operatives and the target of bombings. The Israel Defense Forces did not present evidence of this claim, according to the cited report.

The first attack hit the car in which the two men were traveling.killing them. Khalil and Faraj abandoned their vehicle and took refuge in the porch of a nearby building.

Minutes later, the journalist sent a voice message to brothersaying that he was fine and that both awaited the arrival of the Red Cross and the UN force in Lebanon, UNIFIL.

Shortly afterwards, a second attack destroyed the two journalists’ car, parked a few meters away. Faraj said that Khalil protected her with his body of the shrapnel.

Already injured and bleeding, Khalil still managed to call his sister. It was his last call. About five minutes later, a third attack hit the building where the two were hiding, making it collapse.

Faraj survived after being thrown onto the streetand was rescued when the first teams arrived at the scene, almost three hours after the first call for help. But, faced with new explosions and the detonation of a stun grenade, rescuers retreated with Faraj and the bodies of the two men.

The teams were then left waiting for UNIFIL or the international ceasefire coordination mechanism to obtain security guarantees of Israeli forces to return to the site.

It was only around 8:30 p.m. that they returned to the location.with ambulances, rescue vehicles and excavators. They found the building collapsed, with concrete slabs scattered across the street.

The Israel Defense Forces stated that night that they were not preventing access to rescue teams and that sought to reduce harm to journalistsmaintaining the safety of your troops. They also said that they were investigating Khalil’s death and that they regretted Faraj’s injury.

Organizations defending freedom of the press and human rights condemned the case, considering that the attack on a journalist and the delay in medical access may amount to war crimes. UNESCO has, however, called for an investigation into the journalist’s death.

Os attacks against information professionals continue to mark conflicts in the Middle East. According to one of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Khalil is one of the 9 media professionals killed in Lebanon in 2026.