As of Wednesday, November 8, 2023, at least 36 journalists were killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, according to a recent report carried out by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), whose headquarters is based in Brussels.
According to the international NGO, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Israeli army has committed appalling war crimes against journalists. This is why she announced, on October 31, 2023, that she had seized the International Criminal Court (ICC), where she had filed a complaint detailing the cases of 9 journalists, including 8 Palestinians, brutally murdered since the outbreak of the offensive against the Gaza Strip. A first in the history of the ICC, since it can, in principle, only be seized by States, the Security Council of the United Nations (UN), or even by the court prosecutor. RSF’s complaint also mentions the intentional destruction, total or partial, of the premises of more than 50 media outlets in Gaza.
“The scale, severity, and recurrence of international crimes targeting journalists in particular in Gaza call for a priority investigation by the ICC prosecutor. The current tragic events demonstrate the extreme urgency of its mobilization,” said RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire. According to RSF’s count, 34 journalists have been killed since the start of the conflict, including at least twelve who died while carrying out their work (11 in Gaza and one in Lebanon). As for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), whose headquarters is based in Brussels, it estimates the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army at 36. A figure that could quickly be revised upwards given the intensive bombings on the Gaza Strip.
The IFJ cites in an online document all the names of the murdered journalists, most of whom are Palestinian, as well as the media outlets for which they worked. In an exchange with Maroc Hebdo, the secretary general of the international NGO, Anthony Bellanger, believes that only Palestinian journalists provide information and images to the international media because “the Gaza Strip has become an open-air prison, that is -say that no one can enter it and no one can leave it”. Another figure made public is that established on October 31, 2023, by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), based in New York. According to the latter, there are instead 31 journalists killed in the Gaza Strip. For this organization, this is the deadliest death toll for journalists covering the conflict in the Middle East since its creation in 1981. The three international organizations do not fail to mention the particularly high risk incurred by journalists present in the gang. from Gaza.
High risk
In addition to the aerial bombardments which were recently followed by ground operations by the Israeli army, the living and working conditions of journalists have become extremely difficult. Water supplies are limited and internet communications were down for several days before occasionally being restored.
In addition to the deaths and injuries, the three organizations also reported continued attacks, arrests, threats, censorship, and murders of relatives of journalists present on site. Among them, is the famous journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh, a correspondent for the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, whose entire family, notably his wife and two children, were decimated by an Israeli strike on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. A criminal act denounced by the community of journalists around the world and for which no investigation has been opened. For many, Al-Jazeera journalists are in the eye of the Israeli army which targets them in reaction to the editorial line of this channel historically known for defending the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation. But these are apparently not the only journalists targeted by the Israeli army. According to a recent RSF investigation after the assassination of the Lebanese journalist, Issam Abdallah, in southern Lebanon, on October 13, 2023, the latter as well as six other journalists, including two from Agence France-Presse (AFP), were injured. , were indeed targeted by the forces of the Jewish state.
The organization also indicates that “according to the ballistic analysis carried out by RSF, the area from which the shots came is located to the east of where the group of journalists and their vehicles were targeted, where the border with Israel. Lebanese authorities have accused Israel of being responsible for the strikes. Both AFP and the British agency Reuters had asked the Israeli authorities to carry out “a rapid, thorough and transparent investigation”. But this investigation never saw the light of day. One thing is certain, in any case: by killing journalists while they are in the exercise of their functions as well as their loved ones, Israel is violating international law with complete impunity and committing appalling war crimes. The question that arises is: will the ICC look into the complaint filed by RSF? Nothing is certain at the moment.
