By Eva Bartlett<\/strong>, an award-winning Canadian independent journalist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine, as well as Venezuela and the Donbass. <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n @evakbartlett<\/a>In Gaza<\/a>@Reality_Theories<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 19, RT war correspondent Steve Sweeney and his cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity were injured by an Israeli strike meters from where they stood in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sweeney was on camera reporting on recent Israeli attacks on southern Lebanese towns and infrastructure when he heard the sound of an incoming projectile. Ducking and running, he managed to escape the brunt of the impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the journalists, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at their filming position near Al-Qasmiya Bridge, where Sweeney was reporting on, \u201cthe targeting of bridges and the forced displacement of one million people, an ethnic cleansing operation on a larger scale than the Nakba,\u201d<\/em> as he later stated<\/a>, referencing the violent displacement of Palestinians which accompanied the creation of the Jewish State in the late 1940s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The men were treated for shrapnel injuries. Sweeney said<\/a>, adding \u201cI\u2019m amazed that we survived. We were incredibly lucky to come away with the injuries we did.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just a day prior, Sweeney had posted<\/a> on X about the Israeli targeted airstrike on Lebanese journalist and Al-Manar TV presenter Mohammad Sherri and his wife. Both were killed. Sweeney reposted the news with the words, \u201cTargeting journalists is a war crime.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day, he himself was targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This deliberate targeting of journalists wearing press vests is another Israeli war crime, in a long list of Israeli war crimes which include killing at least 261 Palestinian journalists in Gaza<\/a> in the past two years alone, as well as previously killing Lebanese journalists and bombing Iranian media<\/a>\u00a0repeatedly.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Deliberate attack\u2019: RT correspondent recounts surviving Israeli airstrike (VIDEO)<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Targeted assassinations of journalists by the Israeli army are not new. Back in 2008, Fadel Shana, a Reuters cameraman in Gaza, was killed by<\/a> a flechette shell fired by an Israeli tank as he worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)<\/a>, Israel was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings globally in both 2025 and 2024. CPJ notes that the Israeli army has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government\u2019s military since the CPJ began documentation in 1992.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan posted<\/a> on X about the targeted attack, clearly stating the journalists had been targeted by an Israeli strike and stating, \u201cWar journalists are not legitimate targets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova highlighted that<\/a> in no way could the strike be considered accidental, particularly given, \u201cthe rocket did not hit an \u2018important strategic military target\u2019, but the location of the report.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n While Western media is always quick to highlight claims<\/a> of legacy media journalists in danger, no matter how staged it appears to be, when it comes to journalists actually under attack the outrage is selective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the attack on Sweeney and Sbeity was filmed on camera in broad daylight, with Israel virtually the only possible culprit, British media in particular have been disinterested. The BBC\u2019s report ran with the headline, \u201cMissile lands next to presenter during live report from Lebanon.\u201d <\/em>Barely noticeable in small print many lines later, the BBC mentions the \u201congoing Israeli air strikes and ground operations in southern Lebanon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The BBC listing an experienced war correspondent as a \u201cpresenter\u201d<\/em> was also not accidental. The overall flippant tone of their report was to insinuate a minor incident had occurred, the missile\u2019s origin unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n RT captures destruction in Lebanon after Israeli strikes (VIDEO)<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Other media followed suit, including<\/a> The Independent, which didn\u2019t even mention, not even in small print, Israeli bombings of Lebanon. It also claimed the government would, \u201ccontinue our support for British nationals in the region.\u201d<\/em> Clearly, that support doesn\u2019t extend to Sweeney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remarkably, later the same day that he was nearly killed, Sweeney was already back outside reporting, defiantly stating<\/a>, \u201cIf Israel thinks today\u2019s strike will silence us and keep us out of the field they are very, very mistaken.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To the CPJ\u2019s credit, despite its failing elsewhere (like failing to report on Russian journalists<\/a> killed by the Ukrainian regime), it did issue a strong and clear condemnation<\/a> of the attack on Sweeney and Sbeity, unequivocally naming Israel as the perpetrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It called for \u201can investigation into the apparent targeting\u201d<\/em> of the journalists, and emphasized they were injured, \u201cwhen an Israeli air strike hit just feet away from where they were filming while wearing clearly marked press gear and with their equipment clearly visible in southern Lebanon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Western](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mf.b37mrtl.ru\/files\/2026.03\/xxs\/69be5fdb85f5400ed7728ba5.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nRussian condemnation, British silence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As for the British government, the reaction thus far has been nothing. Declassified UK posted on X that the Foreign Office\u2019s response to British journalist Steve Sweeney being targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon was simply to reply to the government\u2019s position<\/a> made before Sweeney was targeted, a word salad blaming Iran and Lebanese Resistance, Hezbollah, and whitewashing the US-Israeli strikes which were the direct cause of Iranian retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n