BEIRUT - In a bid to hide the genocidal massacres that are being committed daily in various Lebanese regions, the pro-resistance media is now the major target of the Zionist regime’s aggression after it has miserably failed to achieve a sole strategic achievement.

Without warning, the Israeli enemy targeted one of the offices of Al-Mayadeen TV in the Janah area in Beirut. This crime was followed by attacks on the Lebanese Resistance, Arab and international media correspondents in the town of Hasbaya, southern Lebanon, where Al-Manar TV photojournalist Wissam Qassem, Al-Mayadeen TV photojournalist Ghassan Najjar and Al-Mayadeen broadcast engineer Mohammad Reda were martyred.

Following the attack, Ali Shuaib, Al-Manar’s correspondent, who miraculously survived the strike, said: “Today we are the news.”

Hezbollah’s Media Relations Office condemned the attack, saying: “We are fully confident that this crime will not prevent free and honorable channels from covering the ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its people and conveying the heroism of the resistance fighters and the steadfastness of the people and the defense of their land and villages.”

Ghassan Ben Jeddou, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Al-Mayadeen channel, held the occupation regime “fully responsible for this war crime”.

By targeting journalists Israel exposes its “crimes”, Ben Jeddou said, stressing that “Al-Mayadeen will continue and will not retreat from performing its media duties.”

This is not the first time that the Israeli enemy is targeting Al-Mayadeen. Less than a year ago, the channel’s correspondent, Farah Omar, and photojournalist, Rabie Maamari, were martyred in Tair-Harfa in southern Lebanon.

Joseph Al-Qasifi, the head of the Lebanese Journalists Syndicate, stated that the number of Lebanese media persons martyred has reached 9, stressing that targeting journalists is “a full-fledged war crime.”

Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression in October last year, these journalists have been fighting the unprecedented Western prejudice in favor of the Israeli narratives by exposing the deliberate and systematic crimes carried out by the Israeli occupation regime.

In parallel, some Lebanese and Persian-Gulf Arab media outlets are waging a systematic hostile campaign against the Resistance to the point that observers call them “Israel’s support front in Lebanon.”

Besides, this is taking place in line with the provocative role played by Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military Arabic spokesman. He has become one of the sources for hostile channels. For example, he asked journalists to visit a bunker built under the Al-Sahel Hospital, where he claimed Hezbollah had stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold. His claims turned out to be false.

In the same context, Adraee claimed that six Palestinian journalists for Al Jazeera - namely Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hussam Shabat, Ashraf Al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar and Talal Al-Arouqi - work in favor of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Adraee claimed that they are “the spearhead in spreading Hamas propaganda messages within the framework of their work for Al Jazeera, with a focus on the northern Gaza Strip.”

This is what the enemy claims to justify targeting journalists. Since the Israeli onset of the genocidal war in Gaza, more than 170 journalists and photojournalists have been killed. 

Meanwhile, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar has warned of the malicious role played by the US embassy in Beirut against the Resistance media. Al-Akhbar stated, “If the goal is to distance us from the option of comprehensive resistance against the Israeli enemy and the US hegemony, then he is delusional who believes that he can achieve this goal, or prevent us from confronting and exposing all forms of American, British, German, Saudi and Emirati interference in Lebanon. As for our position regarding the Resistance fighters, who are defending the land at every moment, Al-Akhbar will remain their voice and their shadow, no matter what the enemies at home and abroad do.”