Israeli impunity has emboldened escalating crimes against Palestinian journalists and media, says the rights group.
This statement was originally published on madacenter.org on 1 August 2024.
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) condemns the Israeli Occupation Forces and authorities’ persistence in committing more crimes and serious attacks against journalists and media outlets in Palestine, the latest of which was targeting a group of journalists in the Gaza Strip yesterday, Wednesday, with a missile launched from a drone, which led to the martyrdom of two of them, bringing the number of martyred journalists since October 7 to 167.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and National Agency photographer Rami al-Rifi were martyred yesterday afternoon, Wednesday July 31st, 2024, during a journalistic mission in the Shati’ refugee camp in Gaza City, near the home of the head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, where they were following up live on his assassination from in front of his house, following up on the reactions to the assassination. As soon as they left the place in a car bearing the press badge, while they were wearing press uniforms, a drone targeted their car with a missile, which led to the martyrdom of journalists Ismail and Rami after they were directly hit. Journalist al-Ghoul arrived at the Baptist Hospital in the city with his head severed from his body, while Rami arrived in pieces.
MADA condemns this heinous crime and denounces all the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation government and army against journalists and media outlets in the Gaza Strip, which have crossed all red lines and have become carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner, most notably the crimes of killing journalists and targeting them while they are working to prevent them from performing their work and completing their mission of exposing the crimes of the occupation.
MADA believes that the impunity of the perpetrators of all these crimes and hundreds of other Israeli crimes and violations against journalists and media outlets in Palestine is what encouraged the Israeli occupation to persist and escalate in committing more of them, as has been happening in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for months. Accordingly, MADA calls on the international community to acknowledge its inability and failure to provide protection to Palestinian civilians and journalists, as long as it is unable to pressure and influence the policies of the Israeli government and provide them with protection.
