A report published by the American magazine “New Lines” stated that more than 109 journalists were killed in the war launched by Israel on Gaza, explaining that the unprecedented death rate forced journalists to separate their grief from their reports.
The report – written by Rayan Al-Amin – explained that this situation has extended to southern Lebanon and the occupied West Bank, where death threats have become a daily routine. Talk show presenter and Palestine TV correspondent Rania Hamdallah said, “Any Palestinian reporter who talks about Israel is already a martyr.”
The New Lines report confirmed that Western media hesitated to blame Israel for targeting media professionals, which made the situation worse.
When it comes to covering the war in the Gaza Strip, the journalists who undertake this task often become the story, and are forced to bear the weight of the coverage despite all the challenges.
This is what Jad Shahrour, communications officer at the Center for Defending Media and Cultural Freedoms (SKeyes), an independent monitor of press rights in the Middle East and documents violations of press freedom, experienced.
Huge pressure
He learned that his close friend Issam Abdullah, who was working as a photographer for Reuters, was killed in an Israeli attack while he was broadcasting live in the village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, so he was forced to use “killed” instead of “martyr” when describing the killing of his close friend. Which sparked criticism against him.
According to Shahrour, Israel is strategically trying to silence its most popular media critics, as if it were waging a war of narratives using lethal force.
The American magazine quoted Shahrour as saying that the response to these attacks also revealed polarization in war reports among the Western media, which hardly highlights these events, unlike the Arab media. The negativity tarnished the respect that Shahrour personally had for some Western institutions.
The magazine continued that the situation in the West Bank is clearer, and gave an example of this in the case of journalist Rania Hamdallah, who has stopped her program completely since the start of the war, and is focusing on her work with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and leading its committee that focuses on press rights in Jerusalem.
She added that since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, Israel has completely or partially destroyed 66 Palestinian media and journalistic institutions, which led to reporters being stranded in the field.
Harsh working conditions
New Lines quoted Rania as saying that despite the difficulties, most of the union’s 1,200 members continued to work in Gaza, noting that Israel’s continued prevention of foreign journalists from reaching the Strip only led to increased pressure on Palestinian correspondents who work in extremely harsh conditions. .
Those journalists who remain alive bear the burden of losing members of their families. Some of them even lost their entire families in Israeli raids.
Rania and members of the union are keen to communicate with international professional institutions, as they submit photos, video clips and written documents to the International Federation of Journalists and institutions concerned with the rights of media professionals, in an effort to prove that the Israeli army was targeting journalists.
They also filed an impartial memorandum in the US Federal Court highlighting the unprecedented attacks on Palestinian journalists.
The magazine states that on November 21, the director of the International Federation of Journalists visited Ramallah to collect testimonies of Palestinian journalists who were injured in the West Bank. This process is arduous and full of bureaucratic hurdles, but the formalities of what Rania describes as “diplomatic advocacy” obscure the urgent need for material assistance needed on the ground.
She asked, “How can you ask a reporter to return to the field if he cannot find bread to feed his children?” She added, “It is true that the union’s job should not provide this kind of material or food support to journalists in the field, but this is necessary at the present time.” “Because you may not find a single can of tuna in all of Gaza.”
According to New Lines, Rania insists on emphasizing that international organizations – such as the Red Cross – have abandoned Gaza, and that in doing so they have become complicit in the bombing, and said in a series of voice messages via WhatsApp, “Our correspondents in Gaza tried to talk about this matter, but no “Nobody’s listening.”
The American magazine’s report confirmed that the martyrdom of Tel Aviv Tribune journalist Samer Abu Daqqa received widespread coverage.
Reuters was among the media outlets that reported the news, and concluded its article about the citation with a quote from White House National Security spokesman John Kirby: “We do not yet have any indications that Israel is deliberately targeting journalists covering this war.”