By Eva Karene Bartlett – Mar 21, 2026
The non-reaction to a reporter’s narrow escape from an Israeli missile strike underscores the selective outrage of Western media
On 19 March 2026, RT war correspondent Steve Sweeney and his cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity were injured by an Israeli targeted missile strike metres from where they stood in southern Lebanon. Sweeney was on camera reporting on recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanese towns and infrastructure when he heard the unmistable sound of an incoming missile. Ducking and running, he escaped the missile impact just metres from where he and Sbeity stood.
The moment Israel targeted British journalist Steve Sweeney in southern Lebanon.pic.twitter.com/sbxhDAK5fI
— Lowkey (@Lowkey0nline) March 19, 2026
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.
According to the journalists, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at their filming position near Al-Qasmiya Bridge, where Sweeney was reporting on, “the targeting of bridges and the forced displacement of one million people, an ethnic cleansing operation on a larger scale than the Nakba,” as he later stated.
The men were treated for shrapnel injuries. Sweeney said, adding “I’m amazed that we survived. We were incredibly lucky to come away with the injuries we did.”
❗️Israeli army ‘DELIBERATELY’ targets RT crew despite clearly marked press uniforms — injured Ali Rida reports from southern Lebanon https://t.co/5Elgars8i2 pic.twitter.com/zOqxULSxcu
— RT (@RT_com) March 19, 2026
The next day, he himself was targeted.
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 in the past two years alone, as well as previously killing Lebanese journalists and bombing Iranian media repeatedly.
The journalist death toll in Gaza strip reached 261 after journalist Amal Mohammed Al-Shamali was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Government Media Office in Gaza condemned the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists, holding Israel, the US, the UK, Germany, and France… pic.twitter.com/Dx5jjzQhIS
— Mats Nilsson (@mazzenilsson) March 11, 2026
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 flechette shell fired by an Israeli tank as he worked.
In January 2009, I was in media building and had just given an interview to RT on what I was seeing on the ground during the 3 week Israeli war on Gaza. The building came under Israeli attack while we were on the 10th floor, with 7 shells from Israeli tanks east of Gaza. Thankfully, no one was killed.
But in subsequent years, the Israeli army repeatedly bombed key media buildings in Gaza, ultimately destroying them along with most of the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israeli genocide.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 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’s military since the CPJ began documentation in 1992.
Israel Kills Al Manar TV Journalist During Violent Attacks in Central Beirut
Russian condemnation, British silence
RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan posted on X about the targeted attack, clearly stating the journalists had been targeted by an Israeli strike and stating, “War journalists are not legitimate targets.”
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova highlighted that in no way could the strike be considered accidental, particularly given, “the rocket did not hit an ‘important strategic military target’, but the location of the report.”
While Western media is always quick to highlight claims 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.
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’s report ran with the headline, “Missile lands next to presenter during live report from Lebanon.” Barely noticeable in small print many lines later, the BBC mentions the “ongoing Israeli air strikes and ground operations in southern Lebanon.”
The BBC listing an experienced war correspondent as a “presenter” was also not accidental. The overall flippant tone of their report was to insinuate a minor incident had occurred, the missile’s origin unknown.
Who fired the missile that landed next to Steve, BBC?
The BBC demonstrating how to NOT REPORT HONESTLY on the targeted Israeli strike that nearly killed journalist Steve Sweeney and his cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity in southern Lebanon yesterday.
*Note that the BBC several lines… https://t.co/yLFlssrGQN pic.twitter.com/qt8p7vjgKT
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) March 20, 2026
Other media followed suit, including The Independent, which didn’t even mention, not even in small print, Israeli bombings of Lebanon.
As for the British government, the reaction thus far has been nothing. Declassified UK posted on X that the Foreign Office’s response to British journalist Steve Sweeney being targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon was simply to reply to the government’s position 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.
It also claimed the government would, “continue our support for British nationals in the region.” Clearly, that support doesn’t extend to Sweeney.
Remarkably, later the same day that he was nearly killed, Sweeney was already back outside reporting, defiantly stating, “If Israel thinks today’s strike will silence us and keep us out of the field they are very, very mistaken.”
To the CPJ’s credit, despite its failing elsewhere (like failing to report on the dozens of Russian journalists killed by the Ukrainian regime since 2014), it did issue a strong and clear condemnation of the attack on Sweeney and Sbeity, unequivocally naming Israel as the perpetrator.
It called for “an investigation into the apparent targeting” of the journalists, and emphasized they were injured, “when 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.”
CPJ stated, “Striking reporters who are clearly marked as a press constitutes a violation of international law.” See, BBC and co? It’s not that hard.
Not only does Israel, empowered by Western silence and cooperation, bomb civilians and civilian infrastructure. It also targets journalists, whose job it is to document these atrocities. Refusal to call these attacks out for what they are is cowardly at best, complicit at worst.
Related Links:
–‘Deliberate attack’: RT correspondent recounts surviving Israeli airstrike
–Ukraine’s murder of 30 Russian journalists met with Western indifference…or grotesque gloating
This is tragic news. I knew this young man, he was an excellent journalist and a very kind, humble, intelligent person, and also helpful to me, sharing his knowledge & helping with translation. 😢 In October 2022, we shared a trip to Gorlovka and villages nearby, & also to a… pic.twitter.com/5nBBYRmQGo
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) June 16, 2024
During Ukraine's bombings of central Donetsk a couple hours ago. At least five in first few minutes, ~10:20 am. Some time later, another maybe 4 explosions. Dead woman's body blurred to avoid Twitter censorship. pic.twitter.com/IfeItc6yLj
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) August 4, 2022
(Substack)
Eva Karene Bartlett
Eva Karene Bartlett is a Canadian activist and blogger who covers the Middle East, particularly Palestine and Syria. She writes op-eds for the Russian-funded television network RT. Bartlett describes herself as an "independent writer and rights activist.
