Israel strikes media offices; at least 6 Palestinian journalists killed

At least six journalists are dead and two are reported missing even as Israel continues to scale up its offensive in Gaza. Three of these journalists died on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike, in an area housing press offices in West Gaza’s Rimal district according to The Independent. 

Three other journalists were shot dead since the fighting began on Saturday. 

Out of the six journalists killed over the past four days, at least three donned helmets and vests identifying them as “press”, according to an Al Jazeera report. The deceased journalists have been identified as Saeed Al-Taweel, Mohammed Sobih, Hisham Al-Nawajha, Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi, Mohammad Jarghoun and Mohammad El-Salhi.

Al-Taweel was the editor-in-chief of Al-Khamsa News, El-Salhi was a freelancer,  Jarghoun worked with Smart Media, Al-Nawajha was also a local journalist,  and Sobih and Lafi worked as photographers. Two Palestinian photographers, Nidal al-Wahidi of Al-Najah and Haitham Abdelwahid of Ain Media,  are reported missing.

The homes and offices of a few media owners have also been destroyed, according to the Al Jazeera report, which cited Mada, a Palestine-based press rights group. 

“The homes of Rami al-Sharafi, the director of Zaman Radio, and Al-Quds Today broadcaster Basil Khair al-Din. Media offices, including the headquarters of Al-Ayyam newspaper in the Palestine Tower, Fadel Shanaa Foundation, Shehab Agency, and Gaza FM Radio were also hit,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Sky News Arabia’s crew were assaulted and their equipment was damaged on Saturday by the Israeli police in Ashkelon. “The channel’s correspondent Firas Lutfi said Israeli police aimed rifles at his head, forced him to remove his clothes, confiscated the team’s phones, and made them leave the area under police escort.”

‘No accountability’

These deaths add to the 20 journalists estimated to be dead at the hands of Israeli forces between 2000 and 2022, according to a CPJ report in May. “No one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths.” 

The New York-headquartered non-profit said that none of these 20 journalists were Israelis and “no journalist was killed within Israel’s internationally recognised borders”.

However, a Middle East Monitor report estimated this number to be 55, quoting the Turkish state-run Anadolu News Agency. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders reported the toll as 35.

Israel’s purported “targeting” of Palestinian journalists was under spotlight last year after Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing and Israeli air raids on residential buildings and the offices of media outlets, including Al Jazeera and AP. 

The Israeli military’s probes in the killings of journalists are “classified” and in some cases the government brands journalists as “terrorists”, said the CPJ report. “In some cases, Israel labels journalists as terrorists, or appears not to have looked into journalist killings at all. The result is always the same — no one is held responsible.”

“Israel has failed to fully investigate these killings, launching deeper probes only when the victim is foreign or has a high-profile employer.” The report called the attacks on journalists a “deadly, decades-long pattern”.

A Time report published after Akleh’s death said Israel’s “usual strategy” in case of high-profile deaths was “denial” and “deflection”. The report mentioned the killings of British cameraman James Miller and photojournalist Yaser Murtaja. 

Following Akleh’s killing, several leading media houses, including Al Jazeera, CNN, Associated Press, Washington Post and the New York Times probed the incidents that led to her death, and concluded that she was killed by an “Israeli bullet”.

The US government, meanwhile, called for “accountability” on the part of Israel, and an “independent” probe in the matter. But it subsequently accepted the Israel government’s report that the killing was an accident and also dropped its demands for criminal prosecution — purportedly toeing the Israeli line.