Drone Strike Kills Lebanese Reporter, Leaves Photojournalist Trapped Under Rubble

Zeinab Faraj, 21, walks with a limp and holds her injured hand tightly against her side as she prepares to return to university. A facial injury restricts the movement of one of her eyebrows. These physical marks are the result of a strike in al-Tiri, a village in southern Lebanon, that killed her colleague Amal Khalil, 42, and left Faraj trapped under rubble for several minutes.

The attack occurred on April 22, two days after Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Lebanon. The truce followed a month of airstrikes that flattened villages in the south. Faraj, a photojournalist finishing a degree in radio and TV, teamed up with Khalil, a newspaper reporter, to document the aftermath. Khalil had contacted Faraj after seeing her work on social media, and the two had collaborated on previous assignments. Faraj described the trip as routine, stating she had no sense of fear despite audible gunfire and artillery.

The group included Ali Nabil Bazzi, 27, a municipal official, and Mohammed Hourani, 37, a friend of the mayor. The men had joined the women at Tebnine governmental hospital. Faraj did not hear the initial missile impact. She heard Khalil scream and saw the car carrying the two men in flames. Faraj attempted to pull Bazzi free, but Khalil insisted the men were gone. Faraj observed their bodies torn apart by the blast.

Drones then arrived, flying low and close to the ground. Faraj described one drone coming so near her face that she tried to cover it. It rose again whenever she moved. Emergency services promised help was on the way, a reassurance Faraj said worked like an anaesthetic. A paramedic advised the women to drive back up the road because ambulances were blocked. Their car was hit by a missile as they attempted to enter it. Both women were thrown backward, with Khalil wrapping her arms around Faraj.

Khalil said she hoped the drone would think they were dead. The women took shelter in a nearby house. Khalil was bloodied on the face, hand, and leg and could not move. Faraj sent a final message to her sister before her phone died: "There's no hope left. Forgive me." A missile fell with a sound Faraj had never heard before. She woke trapped under rubble, barely able to breathe. A paramedic held her by the shoulders while a second cleared the debris. Drones returned as they pulled her out.

Khalil is believed to have died about an hour before paramedics were allowed back to the area. The Israeli military stated it identified saboteurs violating the ceasefire. Human rights groups called the attack a war crime, noting the military received repeated messages asking it to allow a rescue. A week earlier, an Israeli military spokesperson labeled a video of Khalil published by her newspaper as "terrorist media." Khalil had also received death threats from Israeli numbers.

Faraj wakes at night screaming and remains on edge when she hears drones or warplanes. She is haunted by the sight of Hourani on the ground, his eyes open and looking at her. Whether she will return to frontline journalism is uncertain.