Israeli air strike kills TV presenter in southern Lebanon

A television presenter who worked for Lebanon’s Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV station has been killed in an Israeli attack on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre as Israel escalated its attacks against the country.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos condemned the killing of presenter Ali Nour el-Din on Monday, saying that the attack is part of Israel’s repeated violations of international law.

“We declare our solidarity and condolences to the media family, and call on the international community to fully assume its responsibilities and take urgent action to put an end to these violations and ensure the protection of media professionals in Lebanon,” the minister said in a social media post.

Al-Manar TV confirmed that the attack in Tyre killed Nour el-Din, saying that he worked at the channel as a presenter of religious programmes.

Nour el-Din also served as the main preacher in Al-Hawsh, in the suburbs of Tyre, Hezbollah said, calling his killing a “treacherous assassination”.

“The targeting of the martyred journalist Ali Nour el-Din signals the danger of the enemy’s continued aggression, now targeting the media in all its forms as a continuation of its systematic assassination policy and attempts to silence the voice of truth and freedom,” the group said in a statement.

Prior to Nour el-Din’s killing on Monday, at least six Lebanese journalists had been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since 2023, according to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Other monitors have put the death toll of Lebanese journalists at 10.

Earlier on Monday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said in a statement that one person was killed in an Israeli air strike in Tyre, although it did not immediately announce the name of the victim. The ministry added that a separate Israeli strike killed two other people in Kfar Rumman near the city of Nabatieh.

The Israeli military later admitted to the killing of Nour el-Din, whom it described as a Hezbollah member.

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 to end more than a year of fighting, which saw Israel carry out air strikes across Lebanon that severely weakened the armed group.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel has kept up regular attacks on targets in Lebanon and has maintained troops in five locations in southern Lebanon.

Since the ceasefire, Israeli strikes have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, according to the AFP news agency, while Lebanese authorities have been facing growing pressure from the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah.

On Monday, Hezbollah called on supporters to gather in its strongholds across Lebanon to express support for its ally Iran, which the group said was facing “American-Zionist sabotage and threats”.

The call came as a US aircraft carrier strike group arrived in the Middle East and US President Donald Trump continued to threaten Tehran with an attack.

In a televised address to supporters, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said that the group would not be neutral in a confrontation between Israel and Iran, but he stopped short of committing to support Tehran militarily if war breaks out.

The Hezbollah chief argued that Israel may attack Lebanon before going to war with Iran or afterwards.

“Facing these similar and intertwining possibilities, and facing this aggression that does not distinguish between us, we are concerned with what is happening and targeted by the possible aggression and determined to defend [ourselves],” Qassem said.

Tehran has warned the US that an attack would be met with a “regret-inducing response” that could affect the entire Middle East region.