'Their voices persist': The final journey of Lebanon’s martyred journalists from the south to Beirut

Report by Petra Abou Haydar, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

From the field where they loved their work, the martyred colleagues made their final journey: Al Mayadeen cameraman Ghassan Najjar, sound engineer Mohammad Reda, and Al Manar cameraman Wissam Kassem.

They were killed in Hasbaya and taken to a nearby public hospital. Transported on three Lebanese Red Cross vehicles, they made their final departure from the South, bound for Al Zahraa Hospital University Medical Center in Beirut.

Heartbroken, Ghassan’s wife Sanaa, who is also a colleague at Al Mayadeen, said this was what he had always wished for. Ghassan, 48, a father of one, will be laid to rest on Saturday next to his colleague Rabih al-Maamari in Rawdat Al Shahidain instead of his hometown of Qaaqaaiyet El Jisr.

Mohammad Reda, age 55 and father of three daughters, had his body prayed over and temporarily laid to rest, with a burial planned in his hometown of Kfar Sir. Al Manar cameraman Wissam, a father of four, will be buried later in his hometown of Aita al-Shaab.

The Israeli airstrike that killed them while they slept—not as they preferred, standing and recording the destruction—also injured other journalists who were later hospitalized. 

Among the injured were cameraman Hassan Hoteit, who suffered a hip fracture, and five others who sustained minor injuries and bruises, including Al Jadeed correspondent Muhammad Farhat and cameraman Elie Abou Assli.

Even as some voices fall silent, others persist. The message endures: the voice will not fade, the image will remain, and the story will continue.