Lebanon's prime minister has accused Israel of war crimes after Israeli airstrikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj were deliberately targeted as they sought shelter in a home after an initial airstrike hit the vehicle in front of them, killing two men, Lebanese officials say.
The officials also accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of intentionally targeting a marked ambulance as it tried to reach the journalists in the village of Tayri.
The IDF denied that it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area and said it did not target journalists.
Journalists Khalil, 43, who worked for Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, and Faraj, a freelance photographer, were travelling together. The two men who died have not been named by officials.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said: Targeting journalists, obstructing access to them by relief teams, and even targeting their locations again after these teams arrive constitutes described war crimes.
He accused Israel of repeatedly targeting media workers in southern Lebanon in what he described as an established approach.
Salam offered condolences to Khalil's family and said that Lebanon would pursue the crimes before the competent international forums.
In a statement, the IDF said it does not target journalists and acts to mitigate harm to them while maintaining the safety and security of its troops.
The IDF said it identified two vehicles that had departed from a military structure used by Hezbollah.
One of the vehicles had approached Israeli troops in a manner that was an immediate threat after crossing a forward defence line, violating a ceasefire, the statement said.
The IDF said the Israeli Air Force then struck one of the vehicles, and that the structure from which the individuals had fled was also struck.
The Lebanese health ministry said the IDF pursued Khalil and Faraj, who had taken refuge from the first raid in a nearby house, targeting the house where they had sought shelter.
When a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance arrived to treat the wounded, Israeli forces directed a stun grenade and gunfire toward it, preventing it from reaching them, the ministry said in a statement.
This constitutes a blatant double violation: obstructing the rescue efforts of a citizen known for her civic media activism, and targeting an ambulance clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem, the health ministry said.
Clayton Weimer, the executive director of Reporters Without Borders, said the IDF had received messages from the organisation, as well as journalists, asking that it allow ambulances to get to Khalil.
Faraj was eventually evacuated along with two of the dead, the statement added. Khalil's body was later recovered by emergency teams, according to Lebanon's civil defence agency.
The IDF acknowledged reports that two journalists were injured as a result of the strikes, but insisted it was not preventing further rescue teams from reaching the area. It has not acknowledged Khalil's death.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was outraged by Khalil's death.
Earlier this month, two journalists were killed in separate Israeli strikes in Lebanon - Ghada Dayekh, a presenter with privately-owned radio station Sawt al-Farah, and Suzan Khalil, a reporter and presenter on Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with the armed group Hezbollah.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the killings a brazen crime that broke the most basic rules of international law by targeting reporters, who are ultimately civilians performing a professional duty.
At least 2,475 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since the latest war began, and more than 7,500 wounded, according to the Lebanese authorities, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The number includes at least 274 women and 177 children.
The Lebanese health ministry said last week that at least 100 medical workers had been killed in Israeli attacks during the war, and that more than 120 Israeli attacks have been recorded on ambulances and medical facilities. Israeli attacks have killed seven journalists in Lebanon, according to the CPJ.
