70 martyrs and dozens injured.Occupation forces carry out ‘murders of journalists’ in Gaza | Policy

GazaOsama Alkarot’s fear for his own life and that of his family grows every time a fellow journalist is martyred on the scene.He and his colleagues at the scene were terrified Gaza Strip Targeting their homes or retaliating against them by killing their families.

In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate characterized the attacks as “systematically determined assassinations by the occupying government” that left 70 journalists dead, dozens injured and others losing family members or having their homes destroyed. “.

Among the martyred journalists recorded by the alliance, 17 male and female photographers have been killed by the occupying forces in air strikes and shelling since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year.

Don’t undo message

Although Alcarot described it as a “brutal act against journalists”, they did not let cowardice stop them from fulfilling their professional mission to follow developments in the field and the horrific crimes committed by the occupying forces. “Yes, we were scared and frightened for ourselves and our families, but we did not leave the field,” he told Al Jazeera.

Since the war began, Alkarot has spent most of his time awake except for a few indulgences, spending only one day with his wife and three children at his home in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. During her fleeting sleep, she kept an eye on the development of the situation and recorded the aftermath of a fierce war with audio and video. The thirty-year-old reporter described her as “the most violent of the group.” All previous Gaza wars.

From the first days of this war, it was clear that the occupying government gave its troops the green light to target journalists and anyone carrying a camera on the battlefield, which the Free Committee of Journalists Syndicate described as “targeting those who A person with keen eyesight”. the truth. “

Photojournalist Moatasem Murtaja testified before the Freedom Committee of the Syndicate of Journalists that the occupation targeted his house in Gaza City and destroyed all his journalistic equipment.

The young photographer, who lost two friends, the journalists Rushdi al-Sarraj and Muhammad al-Jaga, believed that “the attack was an attempt to cause harm to the photographer.” A state of intimidation aimed at keeping them away from the scene so that the crimes of the occupiers were committed without witnesses and evidence, without documentation, and within a systematic plan.”

Photojournalist Attia Darwish agreed with him and said: “We were aware of the danger from day one and targeted the press offices inside the towers, which resulted in us being far away from them and not being able to carry all necessary equipment. This affected our work because we found no other place but near Al-Shifa Hospital and we spent terrible nights. “We are witnesses to the martyrdom of our colleagues.

Killing and destruction caused by political decisions

Due to the interest of the Arab and international media in the development of events, approximately 950 journalists registered with the Journalists’ Syndicate are working in the field, including hundreds of photographers, while approximately 1,500 male and female journalists are working on the ground to report on this act of aggression, and Arab and foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the department to report.

Nasser Abu Bakr, head of the Journalists’ Syndicate, told Al Jazeera that “targeting journalists is a literal translation of the occupying forces’ systematic decision to assassinate the truth and kill witnesses to Israel’s crimes.”

According to the monitoring and records of the Syndicate Free Committee, Abu Bakr confirmed that the occupying forces had no means to target journalists, their families and their headquarters without the use of violence, resulting in the death and injury of 70 male and female journalists and photographers Dozens, and destroyed dozens of media organization headquarters, including those of international agencies.

The union estimates that about 80% of journalists have been displaced from the northern Gaza Strip due to violent attacks, especially after shells fell in areas close to the Gaza Strip on the 11th of this month. A press tent near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Abu Bakr places this in the context of Israel’s plan to empty Gaza and its north of the presence of journalists, with the aim, as he puts it, of committing massacres and crimes under the lens of photographers and the pen of journalists.

systematic strategy

The Crimes were tracked by the Journalists Syndicate, which they described as “the largest mass murder in the shortest period of time in the history of crimes against the press worldwide” and monitored in daily reports. Abu Bakr said reports of these crimes were sent to the United Nations and all international news organizations and human rights organizations as well as friendly alliances.

The syndicate, in coordination with the International Federation of Journalists, is preparing to file a third complaint with the International Criminal Court against Israeli actions against journalists, their families and their press and media headquarters, following two complaints filed in 2022.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights used the same description, calling Israel’s crimes against journalists in Gaza “the largest murder case in modern history.” The head of the Observatory, Dr. Rami Abdo, told Al Jazeera that this systematic targeting was “a total media blackout of the entire Gaza Strip.”

Rami Abdo stressed that the occupying forces blatantly violated all international conventions and laws that stipulate the protection of journalists, noting that “the occupying forces’ strategy in war has always been to target journalists in order to hide their image and suppress the voice of the truth.”