TWO Israeli strikes that killed a Reuters videographer and wounded six other journalists in south Lebanon nearly two months ago were apparently deliberate and a direct attack on civilians, two international human rights groups said today.

This followed a warning by the United Nations secretary-general to the security council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said that the strikes on a group of journalists near the village of Alma al-Shaab in Lebanon on October 13 should be investigated as a war crime. 

The strikes killed Issam Abdallah and wounded Reuters journalists Thaer Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television cameraman Elie Brakhya and reporter Carmen Joukhadar, AFP’s photographer Christina Assi and video journalist Dylan Collins.

Amnesty International said that the group “was visibly identifiable as journalists and that the Israeli military knew or should have known that they were civilians yet attacked them.”

Human Rights Watch’s Ramzi Kaiss said: “Those responsible need to be held to account and it needs to be made clear that journalists and other civilians are not lawful targets.”

Amnesty International’s deputy regional director Aya Majzoub said the attacks “can amount to war crimes.”

This follows UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres using a rarely exercised power to warn the security council on Wednesday of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, urging its members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Article 99 of the UN Charter says the secretary-general may inform the council of matters he believes threaten international peace and security. 

His letter to the council’s 15 members said that Gaza’s humanitarian system was at risk of collapse after two months of war.

He said: “The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis.

“Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defence Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon.”

Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said it is essential that the council demand a halt to the conflict.

But Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan said that Mr Guterres invoked article 99 to put pressure on Israel, accusing the UN chief of “a new moral low” and “bias against Israel.”

About 1,200 Israelis died during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, with about 240 taken as hostages.

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that 16,200 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, most of them women and children.