Israel murdered 10% of Gaza journalists
For more than a year in Gaza, the Israeli army has been assassinating journalists in Gaza and destroying their infrastructure. On the borders of the Palestinian enclave, Israel prohibits entry to international journalists who ask to cover news from Gaza, massively arrests Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and the 48 territories, and bans international media like Al-Jazeera, which continuously covers Israeli attacks.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which cites data from the Palestinian Journalists’ Union (PJS), nearly 10% of journalists operating in Gaza have been killed since the start of hostilities. Contacted by the , PJS spokesperson Suruq As’ad confirms that the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza stands at 182, to which are added 164 injured. 136 journalists have been arrested in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, 2023, of whom 58 remain in detention. 88 Palestinian media outlets were destroyed, including 73 in the Gaza Strip.
In his address to the international media seminar on Middle East peace, held on November 1 in Geneva, the United Nations Secretary-General noted that “the number of journalists killed in Gaza has reached an unprecedented level. precedent in modern conflicts. He called the ban on international journalists entering the Gaza Strip “unacceptable,” stressing that “the voices of journalists must be protected and press freedom defended.”
On November 16, journalist Mohammed Saleh Al-Sharif was assassinated by an Israeli drone shooting at him near Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, reports the Palestinian Journalists Union (PJS). .
Al-Sharif had recently been forced to evacuate his home in the Tal Al-Zaatar neighborhood, east of Jabalia, due to ongoing Israeli shelling, and took refuge with a relative in Beit Lahia. Local media say the journalist and his cousin were returning home to assess the damage when an Israeli drone targeted them. Al-Sharif bled for two hours before succumbing to his injuries, while his cousin was killed instantly.
On November 19, the WAFA agency announced the violent death in an Israeli bombing of a child and journalist Ahmed Abu Sharia, near the Al-Iman mosque in the south of Gaza City.
On November 23, the Gaza Media Office declared in a press release the death of journalist Wael Ibrahim Abu Quffa, a professor at the Department of Journalism and Media at the Islamic University, who also worked as a journalist for the Gaza Educational Radio. Quran – the Voice of the Islamic University.
War crimes
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said earlier this month that it was investigating more than 130 cases of journalists killed by Israel in Gaza, whose deaths appear to have been deliberate and directly linked to their profession, which constitutes a crime of war. CPJ adds that these investigations are extremely difficult to carry out due to the conditions on the ground.
A Guardian investigation revealed yesterday that Israel used a US munition to target and kill three journalists and wound three others in an October 25 attack in southern Lebanon that legal experts described as a war crime. potential.
All three were killed in their sleep during the attack, which also injured three other journalists from different media outlets who were nearby. The investigation specifies that there was no fighting in the area before or at the time of the attack.
“Everything indicates that this was a deliberate targeting of journalists: a war crime. It was clearly marked that this was a place where journalists were staying,” said Nadim Houry, a human rights lawyer and executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative.
Janina Dill, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said: “This is a dangerous trend already seen in Gaza: Journalists are associated with military operations because of their perceived affiliation or political leanings, then appear to become targets of attacks. This is not compatible with international law. »
This investigation, which could not have been carried out in Gaza due to the constant bombings and the ban on international journalists entering the enclave, demonstrates the dangerousness and illegality of Israel’s practices as well as the complicity of the United States.
Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said: “The Guardian’s account of what happened in southern Lebanon fits the pattern of killings and attacks by Israeli forces against journalists in Gaza. The targeted killings, the excuse that the attacks were directed against armed groups without providing any supporting evidence, the lack of thorough investigations, all appear to be part of a deliberate strategy by the Israeli military to silence critical reporting on the war and obstruct the documentation of possible international war crimes.”
