Amid reports of a ceasefire deal with Israel and Hamas in Gaza, questions loom over justice for journalists, who families and press associations claim have been deliberately targeted in the conflict zone.
On ABC News, Gaza journalist Shrouq Al Aila said the ceasefire is just an announcement and will come into effect only on Sunday, until which the “genocide” will continue. “We are happy and terrified at the same time.”
Since October 7, 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented at least 165 journalists and media workers killed, 49 journalists injured, two journalists missing, 75 journalists arrested, and multiple other violations of press freedom. CPJ has determined that at least 11 journalists and two media workers were directly targeted by Israeli forces, which CPJ classifies as murder. A deliberate attack on civilians constitutes a war crime under international law.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has now called on “the international community to independently investigate the deliberate targeting of journalists that has been widely documented since October 2023”. When approached for comment by CPJ about the deliberate targeting of journalists, the Israel Defense Forces had said that some were members of militant groups but provided either questionable or no evidence for those alleged links.
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg in New York said the prolonged war has “decimated a generation of Palestinian reporters and newsrooms”. And Reporters Sans Frontieres said that Gazan journalists are working in makeshift newsrooms in tents set up near hospitals in order to have access to electricity and internet. Despite their incredible destitution, they continued to inform the world from a desolate landscape, the RSF said, adding that if the ceasefire agreement is to translate into lasting peace, considerable resources will need to be allocated to rebuilding the infrastructure of Gaza's media.
RSF director general Thibaut Bruttin said, “For fifteen months, journalists in Gaza have been displaced, starved, slandered, threatened, injured, and killed by the Israeli army. Despite these dangers, they have continued to inform their fellow citizens and the world while foreign journalists were denied access to the territory. Gaza’s reporters are the pride of journalism. With the ceasefire agreement, the work of local and international reporters is more crucial than ever — it will go hand in hand with the work of the justice system. To this end, international journalists must be given independent access to the besieged territory as quickly as possible. To avoid increasing this war’s terrible death toll, the Israeli authorities must immediately authorise the hospitalisation of journalist Fadi al-Wahidi outside the Gaza Strip.”
The outfit said that it had filed its fourth complaint with the ICC in September last year for war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza by the Israeli army, and that the first complaint was filed on November 1, 2023.
Here is a list of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, compiled by Al Jazeera, between October 2023 and December 25, 2024.
Meanwhile, at a townhall by Zeteo, a digital outfit led by prominent journalist Mehdi Hassan, Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky said, “I think the question is how cynical are they [the Israeli government] more than us.. I think we should be, like all journalists, skeptical and cautious.”
Israeli journalist Gideon Levy had earlier told Newslaundry that Israeli TV looks like Russian propaganda. Watch our miniseries on the conflict here.
Small teams can do great things. All it takes is a subscription. Subscribe now and power Newslaundry’s work.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
