Hundreds in Lebanon are mourning three Lebanese journalists killed in a targeted Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

A reporter for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV, Shoeib, was killed in the town of Jezzine alongside a reporter, Fatima Ftouni and her brother and cameraman, Mohamed Ftouni, both from the channel Al Mayadeen, according to the stations.

The strike hit the journalists’ car just before noon local time (10:00 GMT).

Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it killed Shoeib, describing him as a “terrorist” from Iranian-backed Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force who had “operated for years under the guise of a journalist.”

The IDF said Shoeib worked to “expose the locations of IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and along the border,” including during the current fighting, and had used his position “to disseminate Hezbollah propaganda materials.”

However, the IDF provided no evidence to support its claims against Shoeib. It also did not comment on the deaths of Fatima or Mohamed Ftouni.

Hezbollah denounced the strike as a “deliberate criminal targeting of journalists.”

“The enemy’s false claims are nothing but an expression of its weakness and fragility, and a desperate attempt to evade responsibility for this crime,” the group said in a statement on Telegram.

Lebanese President, Joseph Aoun, described the development as a “brazen crime” that broke the “most basic rules” of international law by targeting reporters, “who are ultimately civilians performing a professional duty.”

The country’s Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, also condemned the attack in a statement on X, saying it as a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a clear breach of the rules that guarantee the protection of journalists in times of war.”