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AP Portrait Series on Hezbollah Pager Attack Survivors Draws Sharp Critique

Critics from human rights organizations to right-wing outlets condemned the feature for humanizing Hezbollah members

AP’s Hezbollah “Pager Survivor” Story Omits Terror Ties, Focuses on Sympathy
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Overview

  • The Associated Press published a photo essay on August 6 profiling six survivors of Israel’s September 17, 2024 booby-trapped pager operation, revealing catastrophic injuries and dozens of surgeries in their ongoing rehabilitation.
  • Human rights and United Nations reports have argued the pager strike violated international law as an indiscriminate use of booby traps, a characterization Israeli officials reject by citing tests that limited detonation to designated Hezbollah operatives.
  • Right-wing media outlets and several U.S. lawmakers sharply criticized the AP report for portraying members of a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group as sympathetic victims without contextualizing their militant activities.
  • Hezbollah’s Association of Wounded acknowledges that none of the more than 3,000 fighters and affiliates injured in the strike have fully recovered, creating a long-term medical and financial burden for the group.
  • In a related development, Lebanon’s government instructed its army to disarm Hezbollah by year-end as Israel carried out a drone strike that killed a Hezbollah intelligence officer.