The Media Freedom Watchdog condemns Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza News of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Committee to Protect Journalists says the Israeli military “continues to act with complete impunity when it comes to killing journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Israel’s killing of four Palestinian journalists in Gaza last week, as the Israeli army intensified its bombing of the Strip. Besieged lands.

The US-based organization said in a statement on Monday that the international community has failed to hold Israel accountable for its actions amid the increasing death toll of journalists and civilians in Gaza.

“At least 95 journalists and media workers will be killed around the world in 2024,” said Judy Ginsburg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“Israel is responsible for two-thirds of those deaths, yet continues to act with complete impunity when it comes to the killing of journalists and its attacks on the media.”

These statements came a day after Israeli forces killed Ahmed Al-Louh, a 39-year-old Palestinian journalist who worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

During the previous days, Israel also killed journalists Muhammad Baalousha, Muhammad Jabr al-Qarinawi, and Iman al-Shanti.

Hours before the Israeli air strike Shanti was killed The Palestinian journalist wrote with her husband and children in Gaza City on Wednesday on social media: “Is it possible that we are still alive now?”

According to local health authorities, Israel killed more than 45 thousand Palestinians In Gaza. It also leveled large parts of the enclave and imposed a stifling siege, spreading deadly hunger throughout the territory.

United Nations experts and human rights groups accused Israel of this Committing genocide In Gaza.

With foreign journalists not allowed to work in Gaza, Palestinian journalists were the only witnesses Description of atrocities To the outside world. Human rights defenders say this has put them in the crosshairs of the Israeli army, which operates without regard to legal and ethical standards.

According to the government media office in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed 196 Palestinian media professionals in Gaza since the beginning of the war last year. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which did not include some media workers in its tally, estimates the death toll at 133.

On Sunday, Al Jazeera condemned the killing of Al-Louh, and accused Israel of carrying out “the systematic killing of journalists in cold blood.”

Al-Louh was the latest of several Al Jazeera journalists to have been killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the war. He was killed on the first anniversary of the killing of another Al Jazeera cameraman. Samer Abu Daqa, In an Israeli attack.

Earlier this year, Israel also killed the network’s correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul And his companion, photographer Rami Al-Rifi, in a targeted attack.

The Israeli army did not deny targeting Al-Louh and other Al-Jazeera journalists. Instead, it tried to use a familiar pretext to justify their killing – accusing them, without evidence, of being members of Palestinian armed groups, which the network vehemently denied.

On Sunday, the Israeli military claimed that Al-Louh was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, and provided no evidence to support the allegations.

Israel also said that al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas, and later released an apparently fabricated document as supposed evidence, claiming that al-Ghoul received a military rank from Hamas in 2007 — when he was 10 years old.

Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, Israel has claimed – often without providing any evidence – that its attacks on Palestinians form part of its campaign against Hamas.

As did the Israeli army Schools that were bombedHospitals and camps for the displaced, claiming that they target Hamas fighters.