Israel wounds journalists in Khiam as Lebanon truce begins

Two journalists were injured by Israeli gunfire while reporting from the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, which Israeli troops have recently pulled back from following intense clashes with Hezbollah.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), the attack occurred as the journalists were covering the return of residents to Khiam, a town that had seen heavy fighting.

The NNA said that Israeli forces in Khiam opened fire on the group of journalists, injuring two of them.

Video journalist Abdelkader Bay, one of those wounded, said he was reporting in Khiam alongside two other journalists when the shots rang out.

Bay recounted hearing Israeli tanks withdrawing from the area as locals inspected their homes.

He told AFP: “We saw people checking on their homes and, at the same time, we were hearing the sounds of tanks withdrawing,”

“While we were filming, we realised there were Israeli soldiers in a building and suddenly they shot at us. It was clear that we were journalists.”

Photographer Ali Hachicho, who was also on the ground with Bay, was not injured in the attack but he described seeing a drone hovering above Khiam just before the gunfire began.

“When I looked through the camera lens to film the soldiers, I could hear bullets hitting the ground around us,” Hachicho added.

Despite the danger, the two journalists continued to document the situation, witnessing the Israeli withdrawal from the area after months of hostilities.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which took effect this morning, ended over two months of fierce fighting in southern Lebanon, but tensions are still high and Israeli forces have not withdrawn from areas they occupy.

The conflict followed nearly a year of escalating cross-border exchanges, triggered in part by Hezbollah’s support for Hamas during the war in Gaza.

Lebanon’s army have urged civilians to stay away from areas heavily impacted by the fighting, as the region remains volatile.

The Israeli army imposed new restrictions on movement in southern Lebanon because of “security concerns.”

Israeli forces announced that, starting from Wednesday evening, no one would be allowed to travel south of the Litani River, located approximately 30 kilometers from the border, between 3pm and 5am the following day.

People forcibly displaced from their villages under Israeli orders would not be permitted to return during this period.

Despite the fragile truce, the situation in southern Lebanon remains precarious, with both Israeli and Lebanese forces maintaining a wary watch over the border region.