Blast throws debris and shrapnel into the air, forcing him to dive to the ground as the explosion unfolds
Steve Sweeney reporting from the Qasmiya crossing seconds before an airstrike hits his location. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB
A British journalist working for Russian state broadcaster RT has survived a near-fatal missile strike in southern Lebanon, after an Israeli attack landed just metres from his position while he reported from the scene.
Video shows Steve Sweeney, RT’s Lebanon bureau chief, standing near the Qasmiya crossing when a missile strikes nearby. The blast throws debris and shrapnel into the air, forcing him to dive to the ground as the explosion unfolds.
Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor in chief, said earlier that an Israeli aircraft fired on the vehicle carrying him and his cameraman as they crossed a bridge in the south. Both men survived the incident and are receiving treatment in the hospital. Doctors are assessing injuries caused by shrapnel, but medical staff have confirmed that both remain conscious.
In a subsequent video post, Steve could be seen with bandages on his arms.
“Today Israel tried to kill me in a targeted airstrike in southern Lebanon as I was reporting on the targeting of bridges and the forced displacement of 1 million people, an ethnic cleansing operation on a larger scale than the Nakba,” he said.
He added that he has “no doubt this was deliberate”.
Read more: Israel admits tank fire hit UN base in Lebanon, wounds peacekeepers
RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said on X that the pair had “miraculously survived” the strike.
The Israeli military acknowledged the incident after the footage circulated online. In a statement, it said forces had issued explicit warnings about activity in the area before carrying out the strike. It added that it targeted the crossing after allowing time for civilians to leave, and insisted it does not deliberately target journalists or civilians.
However, a Committee to Protect Journalists report states that in 2025, Israel was directly responsible for killing two-thirds of the 129 journalists killed during that year.
Israeli forces have intensified air strikes and ground operations in Southern Lebanon. Around 800,000 Lebanese civilians have been displaced since the conflict began, and at least 773 people have been killed, many of them civilians, according to an Axios report on Saturday.
