A December 26 press release from the Israeli military attempted to justify a war crime. She shamelessly admitted that the army burned five Palestinian journalists in a clearly marked press car outside al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, 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 child; he was visiting his colleagues in the vehicle when he was hit. His son 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 military statement claimed that the five Palestinians were “operatives posing as journalists” and that they were spreading “war propaganda” because they worked for Al-Quds Al-Youm TV, affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The Israeli military did not claim that they actually carried weapons or engaged in any armed action.
Many Western publications quoted the Israeli army’s statement as if it were an objective position rather than propaganda that exposed a war crime. They failed to make clear to their audience that attacking journalists, including journalists who may be accused of promoting “propaganda”, is a war crime; all journalists are protected under international humanitarian law, regardless of whether the military likes their reporting or not.
The Geneva Conventions, Article 79 of the Additional Protocol, states that all journalists “engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict shall be considered civilians … (and) shall be protected (…) and without prejudice to the law of war correspondents accredited to the armed forces. forces”.
In complete disregard of these provisions of international law, the Israeli military has gone on a killing spree of Palestinian journalists for the past 15 months. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, 201 have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Other numbers put the number at 217.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an estimated 138 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank between October 7, 2023 and December 31, 2024. The organization counted five victims of the Israeli army’s attack on December 26 in count.
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders described Israel’s killing of journalists as “an unprecedented bloodbath” and Palestine as “the most dangerous place for journalists”. CPJ has also listed Israel as one of the “best jailers of journalists.”
Not only does Israel refuse to recognize any Palestinian media worker as protected, it also bans foreign journalists from entering Gaza.
It has been really disturbing that the international media has done little to protest this ban. Apart from a petition signed by 60 media over the summer, the international media has not consistently followed through on such requests for 15 months.
If a major media organization is denied access to a particular country, an indication of this ban is often attached to news reports as a form of protest. However, in the case of Gaza, Israel is given a pass, especially by the mainstream Western media, with Israeli press releases regularly passed off 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 United Nations experts, some Israeli NGOs like B’Tselem, and every major international human rights organization have denounced Israel’s actions, the legacy media continues to give it the benefit of the doubt. In the rare cases where Western bodies have investigated Israeli claims, as The New York Times recently did, the findings overwhelmingly echo reports that Arab media and some left-wing Israeli outlets had made months earlier, describing serious crimes. that were being carried out.
One of the reasons why we have reached the point where Israel, the self-proclaimed “only democracy in the Middle East,” massacres journalists with impunity is because it was never held accountable for the gradual intensification of violence against media workers all these years. .
The assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin in 2022 is one such case. While there was a cover-up and investigative work done by the Western media into her murder, Israel was still allowed off the hook by claiming it was making a “bad apple” and the soldier responsible would be held to account. He wasn’t.
What our foreign colleagues need to understand is that Israel’s push to normalize the mass killing of journalists threatens not only Palestinian media workers. If such abhorrent behavior in war zones becomes normalized, then no journalist, no matter what passport they hold, would be safe.
It is time for the international media community to stop making excuses for Israel and call its actions what they are: war crimes. It is time for journalists around the world to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues and hold accountable those who massacred them. It is time for them to demand action from their governments that results in direct sanctions against Israel.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
