Zeinab Faraj details the moment a missile hit the car carrying her dead colleague
The 21-year-old photojournalist was trapped under rubble while Amal Khalil, a 42-year-old reporter, died during a ceasefire breach in southern Lebanon.
By Rosa Wojcik ·
A missile strike in southern Lebanon killed a veteran reporter and left a 21-year-old photojournalist trapped under rubble in April. Zeinab Faraj was documenting the aftermath of a month of airstrikes when the attack occurred. She is now sharing the specific details of how she survived the incident while her colleague, Amal Khalil, did not.
Faraj and Khalil were traveling in a car with two other men near the village of al-Tiri on April 22. The two men were Ali Nabil Bazzi, a municipal official, and Mohammed Hourani, a friend of the mayor. Faraj said she did not hear the missile impact. She heard Khalil scream and then saw the vehicle in front of them catch fire.
The group exited the burning car. Faraj attempted to pull Bazzi free, but Khalil told her the men were gone. Faraj described the bodies as torn apart. Drones then arrived, flying low and close to the ground. One drone came so near to Faraj's face that she tried to cover it, but it rose again whenever she moved.
Emergency services told the women that help was on the way. Faraj said these assurances worked like an anaesthetic for her. A paramedic instructed them to drive back up the road because ambulances were blocked. As they tried to get back into their vehicle, a second missile hit the car. Both women were thrown backward. Khalil wrapped her arms around Faraj in the impact.
They took shelter in a nearby house. Khalil was bleeding from her face, hand, and leg and could not move. Faraj sent a final message to her sister before her phone battery died: 'There's no hope left. Forgive me.' A drone dropped sharply toward her as she watched the road. A missile then fell with a sound she had never heard before.
Faraj woke up trapped under rubble. She could barely breathe. A paramedic held her by the shoulders, and she begged him not to leave. A second paramedic cleared the debris. They pulled her out while she screamed in pain. A drone dropped a stun grenade in the area. In the ambulance, Faraj mistook the engine noise for a drone. At the hospital, nurses first reassured her about Khalil, then went quiet.
Khalil is believed to have died about an hour before paramedics were allowed back to the area to rescue Faraj. The Israeli military stated that it identified saboteurs violating the ceasefire. Human rights groups called the attack a war crime. They noted that the military received repeated messages asking it to allow a rescue while the women sheltered in the building.
A week before the strike, an Israeli military spokesperson shared a video of Khalil published by her newspaper. The spokesperson labelled it 'terrorist media'. Khalil had also received death threats from Israeli numbers. Faraj is now preparing to return to university. She still struggles to walk properly and has a visibly injured hand. A facial injury has affected the movement of one eyebrow.
Faraj said she was always on the move and lost that. She wakes at night screaming. Drones and warplanes put her on edge. Whether she will go back to frontline journalism is uncertain. She said she is haunted by the sight of Hourani on the ground, his eyes open and looking at her.
