Journalists and media crews were subjected to blatant attacks targeting their lives directly.
This statement was originally published on madacenter.org on 4 July 2023.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the attack on journalists and targeting their equipment with live bullets while covering the aggression at the entrance to Jenin camp yesterday, Monday, 3rd July 2023, in light of the inability of the international community to provide them with the needed protection.
Journalists and media crews were subjected to blatant attacks targeting their lives directly, as a group of journalists were trapped, namely: (Arab TV reporter Amid Shehadeh, the TV cameraman Rabih Al-Munir, Turkish Anatolia Agency cameraman Hisham Abu Shaqra, Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah cameraman Issam Rimawi Russia Today TV cameraman Abdul Rahman Younis) in a citizen’s house for more than half an hour, amid heavy firing of live bullets towards the house in which they were sheltering. The Arab TV camera remained outside and continued the coverage, as one of the soldiers deliberately targeted the camera with ten bullets in a way that led to damaging and dropping it off the metal carrier on the ground. It was broken into inoperable parts, while some bullets hit a bag and the live broadcast device, which led to its complete explosion and destruction.
MADA strongly condemns the systematic crimes of the occupation against journalists and their equipment, and reiterates its call to the international community to take urgent action to secure protection for Palestinian journalists and the media, and to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes, as Article 79 of the Additional Protocol attached to the 1949 Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians during Military Conflicts stipulates that “civilian journalists who are performing their duties in areas of armed conflict must be respected and treated as civilians, and protected from every form of deliberate attack, provided they do not act contrary to their status as civilians”.
Furthermore, UN Security Council Resolution No. 1738 stipulated that “media facilities and equipment should be considered civilian objects that should not be the target of any attacks or acts of reprisal”.
