December 26, 2024: The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR): Worst Crime Against Journalists in Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Strip: Israeli Occupation Forces Kill 5 Journalists in Targeted Strike on their Vehicle
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to target and kill journalists during Israel’s widescale and ongoing military aggression on the Gaza Strip for 15 months now. By this, Israel intends to kill the eyewitnesses to its atrocities and genocidal crimes committed against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip while the whole world is watching. The pattern of attacks against journalists undoubtedly prove that it is a policy adopted by Israel’s echelons to exterminate all journalists and reporters who powerfully cover the crimes committed on the ground in audio and photo. Journalists are pursued while in field or even in their homes with their beloved ones, clearly sending them an intimidating message to deter them from exposing the truth to the whole world.
As part of these ongoing crimes, at around 01:05 on Thursday, 26 December 2024, an Israeli drone struck a white broadcast van for al-Quds Channel parked near the administrative building of al-‘Awda Hospital to the south in al-Nussairat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip. As a result, 5 Al-Quds Channel journalists were killed: Ayman Nihad ‘Abdel Rahman al-Jedi (28), a photojournalist, Faisal ‘Abdullah Mohammed Abu al-Qomsan (27), a reporter, Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim al-Sheikh Khalil (38), Fadi Ihab “Mohammed Ramadan” Hassounah (22) and Mohammed Iyad Khamis al-Lad’ah (23). The van engulfed in flames burning the bodies of the 5 journalists. Moreover, 2 other persons were wounded; one of whom was a security man in the hospital while the hospital building sustained damage.
“This is not a war; this is Israel’s absolute brutality to perpetuate its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people. US and certain European states are complicit in this campaign through continuing to send Israel weapons and ammunition to kill and maintaining their full political and legal protection to justify all crimes committed against our people,” commented lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).
According to the testimony of Talal Mahmoud ‘Abdel Rahman al-‘Arouqi (31), Al-Jazeera Mubasher reporter, whose car parked near the targeted area sustained damage, he heard a strong explosion while he was at the hospital, so he immediately rushed to the targeted van. He said that the journalists daily slept inside the broadcast van clearly marked with the word “PRESS”.
The number of journalists killed by IOF since 07 October 2024, the onset of the Israeli genocidal campaign on the Gaza Strip, has risen to 201, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. This war has taken a record toll since the recording of journalist fatalities started in 1992. Among those killed were 20 female journalists. Meanwhile, the majority of journalists (191) were killed in Israeli warplane and drone airstrikes, and the remaining four were shot dead by Israeli snipers. Most journalists were killed alongside their families in targeted attacks on their homes.
Israel, by targeting journalists, aims to monopolize the narrative and orchestrate a media blackout to prevent the world from seeing the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people while denying international journalists’ access to Gaza to cover the genocide. All of this is part of a full-blown genocidal campaign and other international crimes, attempting to entrench a second Nakba against 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for over a year.
PCHR believes that Israel continues to pursue a systematic policy to eradicate journalism in the Gaza Strip marked by the direct targeting and blatant disregard for press insignia. Despite journalists wearing their distinctive uniforms and being in an area well known to IOF, they were deliberately targeted and killed.
PCHR asserts that the targeting of journalists intends to isolate the victims and prevent the documentation of Israel’s genocidal acts against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. PCHR calls on the international community to openly condemn the targeting of journalists, to exert pressure on Israel, the occupying power, to immediately stop these attacks, and to urgently provide international protection for civilians, including journalists, in the Gaza Strip.
PCHR reiterates that journalists enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law, akin to civilians. According to Article 79 of Protocol Additional I to the Geneva Conventions, which codifies a rule of customary international law, “journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in zones of armed conflict are civilians within the meaning of Article 50 (1). “As such, they enjoy the full scope of protection granted to civilians under international human rights law, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Israel has ratified but refuses to apply to the occupied territory, just as it denies the applicability of international humanitarian law.
PCHR emphasizes that the willful killing of journalists constitutes a war crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to Article 8 of the ICC Rome Statute. Such an act also constitutes arbitrary deprivation of life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the perpetrators must be held accountable.
The targeting of journalists is also a violation of the right to freedom of the press and freedom of expression as guaranteed under international human rights law, particularly Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the ICCPR.
In light of these violations, PCHR urges the international community to pressure the occupying power to cease its genocide in the Gaza Strip, immediately stop targeting journalists, take immediate action to provide international protection for civilians, including journalists, and compel it to comply with the rules of the international law.
PCHR also calls upon international journalism organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists, to take action to hold Israel accountable for the killing and targeting of journalists in Palestine, especially in the Gaza Strip.
