A December 26 press release from the Israeli military attempted to justify a war crime. He unabashedly admitted that the army cremated five Palestinian journalists in a clearly marked press vehicle in front of al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The five victims were Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, Mohammed al-Ladaa, Fadi Hassouna and Ayman al-Gedi. Ayman had arrived at the hospital with his wife who was about to give birth to their first baby; he was visiting his colleagues in the vehicle when it was struck. Her baby boy was born a few hours later and now bears the name of his father who was not allowed to live long enough to celebrate his birth.
The Israeli army statement claimed that the five Palestinians were “agents posing as journalists” and that they were broadcasting “combat propaganda” because they worked for Al-Quds Al-Youm television, affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The Israeli military has not claimed that it actually carried weapons or was involved in any armed action.
Many Western publications cited the Israeli military’s statement as if it were an objective position and not propaganda whitewashing a war crime. They have failed to clarify to their audiences that attacking journalists, including journalists who could be accused of promoting “propaganda,” constitutes a war crime; all journalists are protected by international humanitarian law, whether armies like their reporting or not.
Article 79 of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions stipulates that all journalists “engaged in dangerous professional missions in zones of armed conflict shall be considered as civilians… (and) shall be protected (…) and without prejudice to the rights of correspondents of war accredited to the armed forces”. strengths”.
In total disregard of these provisions of international law, the Israeli army has engaged in a killing of Palestinian journalists over the past 15 months. According to the Gaza government media office, 201 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Other counts put the number at 217.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), some 138 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank between October 7, 2023 and December 31, 2024. The organization counted the five victims of the attack by the Israeli army. December 26 in the count.
The Paris-based organization Reporters Without Borders called Israel’s killing of journalists an “unprecedented bloodbath” and Palestine the “most dangerous country for journalists.” CPJ also ranked Israel among the top “jailers of journalists.”
Israel not only refuses to recognize any Palestinian media worker as protected, but it also prohibits foreign journalists from entering Gaza.
It is truly worrying that the international media has done little to protest the ban. With the exception of a petition signed by 60 media outlets over the summer, international media outlets failed to consistently act on these demands for 15 months.
If a major media organization does not have access to a particular location, an indication of this ban is often attached to reports as a protest. However, in the case of Gaza, Israel is left out, particularly by mainstream Western media, with Israeli press releases routinely presented as fact.
This complacency has allowed Israel to control the narrative and propagate its claim that this is a defensive war waged by the world’s “most moral army” within the parameters of international law.
While UN experts, some Israeli NGOs like B’Tselem, and all major international rights organizations have denounced Israel’s actions, mainstream media continues to give it the benefit of the doubt. In the rare cases where Western media have investigated Israeli claims, as the New York Times recently did, the findings overwhelmingly repeat the reporting that Arab media and some left-wing Israeli media had made months earlier. , highlighting serious crimes committed.
One of the reasons we have reached the point where Israel, the self-proclaimed “only democracy in the Middle East”, is massacring journalists with impunity is that it has never been held accountable for the progressive intensification of violence against media professionals over all these years. .
The 2022 assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin is a good example. Although Western media did a good job of covering and investigating his killing, Israel was still able to get away with claiming that it was a “bad apple” and that the soldier responsible would be held accountable. for responsible. He wasn’t.
What our foreign colleagues need to understand is that Israel’s efforts to normalize the killings of journalists do not only threaten Palestinian media workers. If such abhorrent behavior in war zones were normalized, then no journalist, regardless of their passport, would be safe.
It is time for the international media community to stop making excuses for Israel and calling its actions war crimes. It is time for journalists around the world to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues and demand accountability for those who massacred them. It is time for them to demand action from their governments that results in direct sanctions against Israel.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.