Iran war live updates: <\/a>For the latest on the Middle East conflict, read our blog.<\/p>\nQueensland University of Technology disinformation researcher Timothy Graham told ABC NEWS Verify it was relevant that the IDF’s admission was made on Fox News \u2014 a media outlet he believed was unlikely to amplify it.<\/p>\n
“It’s fabricated evidence of combatant status applied to a real person, published on an official military platform to justify a killing. It is rationalisation of violence through deception,” Associate Professor Graham said.<\/p>\n
No evidence<\/p>\n
Mr Shoeib was one of three Lebanese journalists killed in a targeted Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Saturday. He was a highly regarded reporter for the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV.<\/p>\n
He was killed in the town of Jezzine alongside reporter Fatima Ftouni and her brother, cameraman Mohamed Ftouni, who were both from the channel Al Mayadeen.<\/p>\n
![\"Mourners](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/e975db1ad4fd5ab9ffc9458ff6a659bb.jpeg\")
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Mourners carry the body of one of the journalists killed in the Israeli strike in south Lebanon during their funeral. (Supplied \/ Ibrahim Amro \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
The strike reportedly hit the journalists’ car just before noon local time.<\/p>\n
The IDF has provided no evidence to support its claim that Ali Shoeib had a military role with Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
It has also not commented on the deaths of Fatima or Mohamed Ftouni.<\/p>\n
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Mr Graham said posts like the IDF’s on social media were increasingly how military propaganda worked in the modern world.<\/p>\n
“Not only through sustained deception and ‘public relations’ but through first-impression dominance,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The correction never catches the lie, or when it does, it doesn’t matter anymore. I would suggest that this is not a communications failure at all \u2014 that’s the strategy.”<\/p>\n
Condemnation<\/p>\n
In a statement on Telegram, Hezbollah decried the IDF’s X statements as false, saying: “This deliberate criminal targeting of journalists, witnesses to the brutality of the enemy, is an aggression that amounts to a war crime against the free, honest and national media.”<\/p>\n
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun also condemned the attack, releasing a statement that said: “Once again, Israeli aggression violates the most basic rules of international law, international humanitarian law, and the laws of war by targeting media correspondents who are civilians carrying out their professional duty.”<\/p>\n
He described the attack as “a blatant crime that violates all norms and treaties under which journalists are granted international protection during armed conflicts.”<\/p>\n
At the time of publication the IDF’s post and edited photo remained on X with no community correction.<\/p>\n
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