AP delivered a rare and exclusive look inside one of the world’s most sensitive conflict zones — the Israel-Lebanon border — uncovering a spike in Israeli attacks on the United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL.
The reporting was anchored by John Leicester, whose years of careful relationship-building with military sources paid off again, this time in a region outside his regular beat. A senior source shared an internal military report compiled by a country with troops in UNIFIL, documenting a sharp rise in Israeli actions against the force. The findings, intended for senior command, had not been made public.
Leicester worked closely with Abby Sewell in Beirut, Joe Federman in Jerusalem and Edie Lederer at the UN to verify and expand on the findings. The result was a deeply sourced and globally significant report that revealed a growing strain on UNIFIL’s operations at a time when its decades-long peacekeeping mandate is set to expire — with U.S. opposition to the mission adding further uncertainty.
Judges praised the exclusive nature of the reporting, the cross-bureau collaboration, and AP’s ability to shed light on developments in a high-risk, difficult-to-report zone.
For delivering exclusive, timely and globally relevant reporting from a hard-to-access region, John Leicester and Abby Sewell win this week’s Best of AP — Second Winner.
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