Gaza (Quds News Network)- Israeli forces targeted a clearly marked press vehicle in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday morning, killing five Palestinian journalists.
All five work for the satellite channel Al-Quds Today. The journalists were sleeping in the van where they should have been safe outside the Al-Awda Hospital.
The slain journalists were Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jidi.
Al-Jidi had gone to al-Awda Hospital with his wife, who was giving birth to their first child. While waiting for his wife, he decided to check in on his colleagues who were outside the hospital in the vehicle. Tragically, he was martyred on the same day his son was born.
Al-Quds Today condemned the attack and said its reporters were killed “while performing their journalistic and humanitarian duty”.
“Is Journalism a Crime?”
Palestinian journalists condemned the Israeli attack that killed five of their colleagues, with many asking, “Who’s next?”
تحدثت بين زملائي وزميلاتي من الصحفيين والصحفيات في وقفة ضد استمرار استهدافنا وقتلنا من قبل جيش الاحتلال ..
تحدثت عن فضيلة الاستمرار رغم كل الخسارات .. وعن مسئوليتنا الاخلاقية والمهنية والمبدئية ..ارتجلتُ ما جال في خاطري .. بعد استشهاد خمسة من زملائنا ووصول العدد الى 201 شهيد… pic.twitter.com/xuIRspM4jK
— Islam bader (@islambader_1988) December 26, 2024
Translation: “Will Israel stop targeting journalists? And will the world, for once, take a stand against it?”
“Massacre” of Journalists in Gaza
Two separate reports from media freedom organisations that analysed the deaths of reporters worldwide this year found Israel carried out a “massacre” of journalists in Gaza.
An annual report published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found the Israeli army killed 18 journalists – 16 of them in Gaza – as they were working this year.
The toll, equivalent to around a third of the total worldwide of 54, was described by RSF as “an unprecedented massacre”.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” the organisation said in its report, which covers data up to December 1.
In total, “more than 145” journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, the report found.
RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army”.
In a separate annual report, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.
The IFJ and RSF figures vary because they use different methodologies to calculate the tolls. RSF only records journalist deaths in its report if they have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity”.
The IFJ also condemned Israel’s military. “The war in Gaza and Lebanon once again highlights the massacre suffered by Palestinian (55), Lebanese (6) and Syrian (1) media professionals, representing 60 percent of all journalists killed in 2024,” it said.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.
Critics accuse Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.
“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account,” Programme Director at Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Carlos Martinez de la, said. According to CPJ, at least 141 journalists have been killed since the assault began.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, 201 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the genocide. The office also condemned the killings, calling on the international community and rights groups to condemn Israeli crimes and prosecute them in international courts.
Source: qudsnen
