People carry the coffin of journalist Amal Khalil, killed on Wednesday in a targeted Israeli strike, during her funeral in Baissariyeh, Lebanon, on April 23, 2026. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The funeral of slain al-akhbar journalist Amal Khalil, known by many as the "Voice of the South," took place in her native town of Baissariyeh (Saida) on early Thursday afternoon as thousands of people poured in to mourn and pay their respects. Khalil was killed the previous day in a targeted Israeli airstrike on a house where she had been seeking refuge with her colleague Zeinab Faraj following another deadly strike nearby. She had been receiving repeated death threats since October 2023.
Meanwhile, a sit-in organized in Beirut brought together members of the press and loved ones who came to pay tribute to their slain colleague and reaffirm their commitment to reporting on the ground despite the risks imposed by Israel's pattern of targeting journalists.
Khalil's coffin was carried on the shoulders of mourners as it made its way through large crowds of family, friends, fellow journalists, and residents from the village and surrounding areas.
The funeral procession moved through the village streets against the backdrop of chants by enraged and sorrowful attendees, including “Death to America,” “Death to Israel,” “Labayka ya Hussein” (“At your service, Hussein”), and "No to normalization," as people threw rice and flowers over the coffin in tribute, according to reports from our correspondent on site.
Upon the procession’s arrival at the town cemetery, women dressed in black gathered, holding pictures of Khalil while chants continued. Afterwards, the town’s sheikh led the funeral prayer over the body before she was laid to rest.
After Khalil and Faraj had taken refuge in a house in Tiri, located in the “buffer zone” Israel is seeking to establish in southern Lebanon, Israeli forces prevented rescue teams from accessing the village for several hours, despite pleas from colleagues, government officials, and international organizations such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
By the time paramedics were able to reach the site of the strike, and after a prolonged search, they found her body lifeless under the rubble and transported it in an ambulance to a hospital in Tibnin.
The killing sparked widespread outrage and condemnation, with both local and international journalists reiterating the need to protect journalists.
Beirut sit-in
At the call of the Union of Journalists in Lebanon, a group of around 150 colleagues and friends gathered in Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut on Thursday afternoon for a vigil in memory of Khalil.
Speaking at the gathering, Elsy Moufarrej, coordinator of the Alternative Press Union, said that the last time she spoke with Khalil, “we were talking about all these martyrs [of the press], one after another … Now, it’s her who has fallen as a martyr. It seems that this was inevitable.”
She denounced the killing as an “Israeli crime” and said the case is “in the hands of the state,” calling for it to be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Interviewed in downtown Beirut, journalist Mohammad Zanaty, a friend of Khalil who has also covered the war extensively, described her killing as a “premeditated crime.”
“The Israelis knew that she was a journalist. They targeted her once, twice …,” he said. He added that he was in Tibnin, not far from Tiri, at the time of the strike, but was unable to reach the scene.
Despite the attack, Zanaty said he would continue his work. “Her killing will not discourage us. If it was going to, we would have stopped after the killing of Issam Abdallah, of Ali, of Fatima … but we will continue to be on the ground,” he said, referring to Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah, killed by Israeli shelling on Oct. 13, 2023, and to journalists Ali Choeib and Fatima Ftouni, killed by an Israeli drone strike on their car in the Jezzine district in late March 2026.
Since fighting resumed between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on March 2, at least eight journalists have been killed by Israel, several of whom, like Khalil, were directly targeted after being subjected to multiple death threats. Israel has killed a total of 23 journalists in Lebanon since October 2023.
