The clearly targeted killing of three media workers in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Friday renewed calls for an end to impunity for Israel’s abuses.

Advocates say the rising number of journalists killed by the Israeli military during the widening conflict is a result of the failure of the international community, especially the United States, Israel’s biggest backer, to hold the country accountable.

The killing of media workers in Lebanon comes just days after Israel baselessly accused some Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza of being members of Palestinian armed groups, raising concerns about their safety.

“The events of recent days are alarming and should serve as a wake-up call for the US government and other states with the authority to hold the Israeli government accountable and put an end to this violence,” campaign manager Rebecca Vincent said. Director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

In the deadly attack in Lebanon on Friday, a compound where many journalists and media workers stayed in an area far from conflict was targeted. There was no warning before the strike, which resulted in numerous buildings being demolished and vehicles marked “press” covered in rubble.

“This is an assassination carried out with premeditation and planning, after surveillance and tracking, as there were 18 journalists here representing seven media outlets,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary wrote on social media.

The killings added to one of the deadliest records for journalists covering a conflict in years.

At least 128 journalists and media workers were among the tens of thousands of people killed by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon last year. This is the deadliest time for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began tracking the killings. more than forty years ago.

The death toll is even higher, with 176 journalists killed in Gaza alone, according to Palestinian officials.

CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna told Al Jazeera: “CPJ is deeply outraged by another deadly Israeli airstrike on journalists, this time targeting a compound in southern Lebanon housing 18 members of the press.” he said.

“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. “This attack must be independently investigated and its perpetrators must be held accountable.”

Branding journalists as ‘terrorists’

Israeli officials regularly smear journalists murdered in Gaza, accusing them without evidence of being members of Hamas and other groups.

This week, Israel accused six Al Jazeera journalists of being “agents” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; This raised fears that it might justify their prior targeting. Al Jazeera categorically denied Israel’s claims.

Israel has killed several Al Jazeera journalists and their family members in Gaza since the start of the war, including the channel’s reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Samer Abudaqa.

Critics argue that Israel, which bans foreign reporters from entering Gaza, targets journalists to hide the truth about war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

CPJ has repeatedly documented Israel’s “pattern of smearing Palestinian journalists with unfounded ‘terrorist’ labels after killing them.”

The latest threat to Al Jazeera journalists comes as calls for Israel to allow foreign journalists into Gaza grow. Earlier this year, more than 70 media and non-governmental organizations signed an open letter calling on Israel to grant journalists access rights that had recently been requested. echoed by dozens of US lawmakers.

Palestinian lawyer and analyst Diana Buttu said that Israel does not want the world to see what is happening in Gaza.

“On the one hand, they do not allow international journalists, and on the other hand, they assassinate journalists who are there,” Buttu told Al Jazeera. “Then they slander the journalists who were there and somehow label them as targets.”

Buttu emphasized that under international law, people can only be considered legitimate targets in war if they are combatants; Accusing someone of being affiliated with an armed group, whether true or not, does not make them a legitimate target.

He added that Israel was “inverting international law” by labeling people as members of Hezbollah and Hamas to justify their killings.

Raed Jarrar, director of advocacy at US-based rights group DAWN, said Israel’s accusations against Al Jazeera journalists were “a deliberate tactic to intimidate and silence those who are exposing the ongoing ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in northern Gaza.”

“This campaign against journalists covering atrocities further proves Israel’s desperation to cover up its war crimes and systematic genocide of Palestinians,” Jarrar added.

Impunity breeds impunity

Israel has targeted journalists at an unprecedented rate during the ongoing war, killing dozens more in previous years. But analysts say there were no consequences for these killings, and this impunity paved the way for the current escalation.

“The deadliest place to work for journalists these days is where Israel is waging war,” Zaha Hassan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera.

think tank posted a video documents the lives of Palestinian journalists in Gaza earlier this year. Just before its release, Sami Shehadeh, one of the journalists featured in the film, lost a leg in an Israeli attack on the Nuseyrat refugee camp where he was filming.

Hassan said the lack of accountability for the killing of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, a US citizen, by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022 was a “herald of things to come”.

Months after Abu Akleh’s killing, U.S. lawmakers and advocates called for an independent U.S. investigation into the incident.

Although US and Israeli media outlets reported that the US Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the shooting, American officials never publicly confirmed this and no findings were released. No one was punished for killing Abu Akleh.

“If justice for Shireen is denied by her own government, how can we expect justice for Palestinian journalists in Gaza or other journalists working in the killing fields in Palestine and Lebanon?” said Hasan.

“The U.S. State Department and the White House recognize the critically important role that journalists play in telling the truth. Unfortunately, they do not place the same emphasis or value on truth or civilian life when the truth is exposing Israeli war crimes or when the civilian target is a Palestinian or Arab journalist.”

The United States often emphasizes the so-called “rules-based order” when criticizing the policies of Russia and China, but has maintained its unconditional support for Israel despite well-documented abuses, including the killing of journalists.

Washington provides at least $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel annually, and President Joe Biden has approved an additional $14 billion in aid to the U.S. ally to help finance the current war.

While the United States and other countries have failed to prevent Israel’s attacks on journalists, advocates have criticized the world’s mainstream media for not paying enough attention and anger to Israel’s attacks on the press.

“There are a lot of people who are complicit in this. It’s certainly not just the governments that are complicit, but it’s also true that we haven’t heard any international outrage from other journalists,” said Buttu, Abu Akleh’s close friend.

“The lives of these Palestinian journalists, these Lebanese journalists, are no less valuable than those of international journalists, and the fact that we haven’t seen any disgrace is incredible.”

However, some alternative media organizations openly condemned Israel’s attacks on journalists.

This week, US-based progressive publication Jewish Currents published a statement in support of six Al Jazeera journalists targeted by Israel.

“As a journalistic institution, we generally refrain from making statements or calling on others to take action, but our position as media professionals forces us to stand in solidarity with our colleagues in Gaza,” the statement said.

“The normalization of Israel’s reckless targeting of journalists has consequences for journalists around the world.”

The publication added that the targeting of Palestinian journalists “should be considered a crisis for the international media.”