ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The United Kingdom and Finland on Saturday warned that the rising tide of violence against media workers in Lebanon has become “unacceptable,” coming after the death of another journalist in an Israeli airstrike earlier this week.

In a joint statement as co-chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition, the two countries said that journalists play “an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war,” calling on Israeli authorities and all parties involved to ensure media workers can operate “freely and safely.”

“Attacks on journalists in Lebanon, including journalist Amal Khalil, killed in an Israeli strike on 22 April, are unacceptable,” the statement read.

Amal Khalil, a correspondent for the local outlet Al-Akhbar, was reporting on the destruction in southern Lebanon on Wednesday alongside freelance photojournalist Zeinab Faraj when the pair was forced to seek cover.

The two journalists fled into a nearby building after an initial strike hit a vehicle in the vicinity, killing two civilians

The structure where the journalists took refuge was subsequently leveled by a direct hit on Wednesday afternoon, leaving the two trapped beneath the debris for several hours.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that “multiple credible accounts indicate ongoing shelling and direct fire at ambulances prevented emergency teams from reaching the scene in time.”

According to the CPJ, Khalil’s colleagues were able to reach her by phone while she was trapped and confirmed she was initially unharmed. However, by the time the Red Cross was finally granted access to the site, she had died, making her the ninth journalist to be killed in the country in 2026.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday labeled the incident a “war crime,” saying in a statement that Tel Aviv “deliberately targets journalists in order to conceal the truth about its crimes against Lebanon.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam echoed his words in a post on X, warning that “Israel's targeting of media workers in the south while they carry out their professional duties is no longer isolated incidents, but has become an established approach that we condemn and reject, as do all international laws and conventions.”

“Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes … war crimes,” he added, concluding that “Lebanon will spare no effort in pursuing these crimes before the relevant international forums.”

“This is not the first time that Israel has prevented emergency services from reaching journalists injured in their strikes,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg. “Journalists are civilians and protected under international law. Israel’s blatant disregard for such norms — and the international community’s failure to hold them accountable — is abhorrent.”

Despite an initial November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah intended to end the hostilities and a second that began on April 16, Israel has never ceased its strikes on Lebanon, contributing to a death toll that includes at least 15 journalists and media workers documented by the CPJ since the October 2023 offensive began.