Journalists who report on the Israeli massacres, cumbersome witnesses to the tragedy, are targeted by the Israeli army. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) has listed, in a statement, a series of crimes against Palestinian journalists since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on October 7, 2023.
Since the beginning of this escalation, the PJS has documented serious violations against journalists, including 11 assassinated journalists, more than 20 others injured and 2 missing, in addition to 50 media offices destroyed and the bombing of journalists’ homes with their inhabitants inside. Aggressions against journalists also took place in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The PJS report details the brutal attacks against journalists who lost their lives while exercising their duty to inform. Among the victims are Ahmed Shehab, a producer for the “Voice of Prisoners” radio station, “Fourth Authority” news agency photojournalist Muhammad Al-Salhi and Muhammad Fayez Abu Matar, an independent journalist.
The statement by PJS also mentioned two missing journalists, photojournalist Nidal Al-Wahidi who works as a producer for Al-Najah TV and journalist Haitham Abdel Wahed from the Ain Media Foundation.
Moreover, many homes of journalists were targeted by The Israeli occupation army. Family members of the journalists were killed or injured as a result of these attacks. The homes of journalists Samah Murad and Muthanna Al-Najjar were seriously damaged and some of their family members were killed.
The raids also destroyed around 50 media offices and centers, including the Al-Aqsa Media Network, the Ma’an News agency, Sawa agency, Shehab agency, Al-Quds newspaper, Baladna Radio, Zaman Radio, among others.
The assaults extended to the West Bank where many Palestinian journalists were injured, arrested, prevented from reporting on events or targeted. Journalists were also threatened on social media and were the subject of campaigns inciting violence against them.
Journalists in Lebanon were not spared either. Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdullah was killed and five journalists from Al Jazeera, Reuters and Agence France-Presse were injured by Israeli shelling near the border with Israel south of the country.
The PJS statement further reports the direct threats and intimidation campaigns led by Israeli pages on social media. This was the case with journalist Muthanna Al-Najjar in Gaza, as well as with journalist Muhammad Turkman in the West Bank.
Many posts in Hebrew have called, according to the PJS statement, to murder the journalists, calling them “saboteurs” and “terrorists”. Today, electricity and internet were cut, which means that the Palestinian journalists in Gaza were unable to photograph, document or send their media materials to be published.
The PJS calls for international action and urges all media outlets to “adhere to the ethics and principles of journalism and to exercise accuracy in covering the news and not be biased towards any party”. In this tragedy, the PJS says that they received massive support from journalist organizations from around the world.
“In light of the tragic situation that Palestinian journalists are experiencing and the PJS maintaining its communication with sister unions and institutions through updated statements and reports, the PJS received many messages and statements of support and solidarity activities with wide and popular participation in support of Palestinian journalists, the most significant of which were from the journalists’ unions in Egypt, UK, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Uganda, Canada, South Africa, the United States, Spain, Belgium, the Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Journalists, and the Federation of African Journalists. Which had a great impact in supporting journalists and giving them hope during these difficult circumstances”, details the statement.
