GENEVA: UN experts stressed that Israel’s aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip has become the deadliest and most dangerous conflict for journalists in recent history.
‘We are alarmed at the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detained in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in Gaza, in recent months blatantly disregarding international law,’ the experts said in a statement.
‘We condemn all killings, threats and attacks on journalists,’ they said.
According to UN reports, over 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, and many have been injured since 7 October.
‘Rarely have journalists paid such a heavy price for just doing their job as those in Gaza now,’ the experts said.
Dozens of Palestinian journalists have also been detained by Israeli forces in both Gaza and the West Bank, they added.
They highlighted the case of Al-Jazeera journalist, Wael al-Dahdouh, who lost his wife, two children and a grandson
as a result of an Israeli bombing on 25 October 2023, endured a drone attack himself that killed his cameraman in late December and lost another son, also an Al-Jazeera journalist, along with another journalist in an Israeli drone strike targeting their car on 7 January 2024
‘We have received disturbing reports that despite being clearly identifiable in jackets and helmets marked ‘press’ or traveling in well-marked press vehicles, journalists have come under attack, which would seem to indicate that the killings, injury, and detention are a deliberate strategy by Israeli forces to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting,’ the UN experts said.
‘Journalists are entitled to protection as civilians under international humanitarian law. Targeted attacks and killings of journalists are war crimes,’ affirmed the experts.
The UN experts urged the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to give particular attention to the dangerous pattern of attacks and impunity for crimes aga
inst journalists, which has intensified since October 7. ‘Targeting and killing of journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory must stop,’ they said.
Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA