An international human rights organization has deplored the assassination of five Al Jazeera staff by Israel in a targeted attack in Gaza City, stating that the Tel Aviv regime has turned its genocidal war on the region into a ‘slaughterhouse’ for Palestinian journalists.
“Israel has turned its horrific 22-month war on the Gaza Strip into a slaughterhouse for Palestinian journalists, systematically targeting them and their workplaces in an effort to enforce a total media blackout” across the besieged coastal sliver, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a press release on Monday.
The Geneva-based humanitarian organization noted that the killing of correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Moamen Aliwa, and their assistant Mohammed Noufal followed a conference by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which he intensified his incitement against independent media, attacked press coverage exposing the crimes of Israel, and vowed to press ahead with his plan to impose full control over Gaza City.
“Israel’s claim of responsibility for killing Anas al-Sharif underscores its blatant disregard for international law and starkly illustrates the consequences of impunity fostered by the international community’s policy of support and silence,” Euro-Med Monitor stated.
It highlighted that it has documented the killing of over 230 journalists, both from media outlets and independents, in the Gaza Strip, along with the injury and detention of dozens more, marking the highest death toll among journalists in any war or conflict in modern history.
Euro-Med Monitor noted that Israel’s targeting of journalists in Gaza is deliberate and premeditated, and constitutes a war crime and a violation of international law, as well as UN Security Council Resolutions 2222 (2015) and 1738 (2006), which condemn attacks on journalists and media workers in armed conflict.
It stated that the deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces reflects a systematic campaign to silence independent media coverage amid ongoing military offensives in Gaza.
Euro-Med Monitor finally underlined the need for an independent international investigation into Israeli crimes against journalists, especially in light of the regime’s long-standing record of targeting the press in the occupied Palestinian territory, most notably during the genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army targeted a journalists’ tent near the al-Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City late on Sunday, killing five journalists, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
The Gaza government condemned “Israel’s systematic assassination of Palestinian reporters in Gaza” and called on human rights and media institutions to “condemn these systematic crimes against Gaza journalists.”
At least 61,499 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and another 153,575 individuals injured in the brutal Israeli onslaught on Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to the health ministry of Gaza.
