Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) unequivocally condemns the Israeli military strikes that claimed the lives of six Lebanese paramedics

and a photojournalist on 22 May 2026—a lethal escalation that lays bare a calculated pattern of targeting those who heal and those who bear witness in southern Lebanon.

The organization asserts that Israel's sustained assaults on journalists and healthcare personnel constitute a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and all binding conventions safeguarding civilians, medical staff, and media professionals in situations of armed conflict.

The Attacks: A Chronicle of Systematic Targeting

Southern Lebanese towns endured relentless aerial bombardment as Israeli forces struck ambulance centers, civil defense installations, and health institutions with precision. The Lebanese Ministry of Health confirmed that six medical workers perished in two distinct airstrikes within a single 24-hour span. Four paramedics affiliated with the Islamic Health Authority were killed in a raid on Hanawiya, while two additional paramedics died in a strike on Deir Qanoun al-Nahr. That same assault claimed the life of photojournalist Ahmed Hariri, according to verified local sources.

This carnage followed an earlier strike on Hanawiya this same week that killed 14 civilians—among the deadliest attacks since the tenuous ceasefire brokered last month.

In a parallel incident, Israeli aircraft targeted the vicinity of Tebnine Governmental Hospital, inflicting extensive damage across all three wings of the facility, including the emergency, intensive care, and surgical departments, while annihilating ambulances stationed nearby.

Eroding the Foundations of Protection

WJWC stresses that these methodical attacks on health infrastructure and medical teams represent a manifest violation of the cardinal principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law, carrying devastating humanitarian consequences for the civilian population.

Lebanese Ministry of Health data reveals that the cumulative death toll among medical workers since 2 March 2026 has reached 123, alongside over 210 children and nearly 300 women. The World Health Organization confirmed a fortnight ago that 152 separate attacks had struck Lebanon's health sector.

Ministry reports further document that Israeli military operations in Lebanon since March 2026 have killed 3,089 people and wounded 8,512.

A Widening Arc of Impunity

The organization underscores that these mounting casualties reflect a deteriorating humanitarian landscape in which civilians, journalists, and aid workers are deliberately marked. Since October 2023, Israel has killed hundreds of journalists across the region—263 in Gaza and at least 21 in Lebanon, with scores more injured. The escalation has forcibly displaced over one million people in Lebanon.

These atrocities are neither aberrant nor episodic. Israeli attacks on Lebanon between October 2023 and November 2024 killed more than 4,000 people and injured nearly 17,000, exposing the hollowness of ceasefire arrangements and the relentless human toll of militarized violence.

WJWC emphasizes that the recurrent targeting of journalists, paramedics, and medical teams in Lebanon serves a tripartite objective: to muzzle media voices, obstruct the transmission of truth from the ground, and cripple the delivery of life-saving humanitarian and medical assistance to afflicted populations.

The Legal Imperative: From Violation to Accountability

The organization affirms that such premeditated attacks constitute grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, which enshrine protection for civilians and for medical and media personnel during armed conflict. The deliberate targeting of journalists is an assault not merely on press freedom, but on humanity's fundamental right to truth and the documentation of atrocity.

WJWC further recalls that Customary International Humanitarian Law Rule 29 mandates the respect and protection of medical transports at all times, while Article 35 of the First Geneva Convention and Article 21 of the Fourth Convention establish the inviolability of medical transport and prohibit its targeting.

The organization concludes that intentional attacks on medical units and transports constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Demanding Action, Ending Impunity

Women Journalists Without Chains calls upon the international community, the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court to initiate without delay independent and transparent investigations into these crimes, ensure perpetrators are held to account, and implement immediate protective measures for journalists, medical teams, and civilians in Lebanon—thereby dismantling the architecture of impunity that perpetuates these violations.

The organization further renews its appeal to international media institutions and human rights bodies to apply sustained and rigorous pressure to halt Israel's ongoing military assaults, uphold the rules of international humanitarian law, and secure a safe and enabling environment in which journalists and humanitarian workers may fulfill their essential duties free from threat, intimidation, or lethal targeting.