According to PCHR’s information, around 14:15 on Sunday, 27 October 2024, Israeli warplanes attacked Asma School, an IDP shelter in Al-Shati Refugee Camp, west of Gaza City. As a result, nine Palestinians were killed, including three journalists: Saed Radwan, Head of Digital Media Department at Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza; Hamza Youssef Abu Selmiya, a journalist at Sanad News Agency; and Haneen Mahmoud Baroud, a freelance journalist.
This attack comes just three days after IOF’s allegation that six Al-Jazeera journalists were engaged in military activities, implying further targeted attacks on journalists, even those in shelters.
The number of journalists killed by IOF since the onset of the Israeli genocidal campaign on the Gaza Strip has risen to 180, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. Among those killed were 14 female journalists. Meanwhile, the majority of journalists (176) were killed in Israeli warplane and drone airstrikes, and the remaining four were shot dead by Israeli snipers. Around 72 journalists were killed with their families in attacks on their houses. Additionally, 58 journalists were killed during indiscriminate bombings throughout the ongoing genocidal campaign; 26 were killed in targeted attacks, and 24 were killed while on duty. In addition, 185 journalists have been injured during the war in various circumstances.
Journalists in Gaza have played a key role in exposing and reporting to the whole world the genocide committed by IOF in Gaza. Israel, by targeting journalists, aims to silence them, preventing the world from seeing the atrocities committed against the Palestinian people while denying international journalists’ access to Gaza.
PCHR asserts that Israel systematically and deliberately targets journalists, especially since the beginning of the genocidal war in Gaza, through direct targeting in explicit disregard for press insignia. Many journalists have been killed while wearing distinctive press attire in locations known to IOF. Israel rightfully earns the title of the number one enemy of journalism.
PCHR asserts that targeting journalists intends to isolate the victims and prevent the documentation of Israel’s genocidal acts against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. PCHR thereby calls on the international community to openly condemn the targeting of journalists, to exert pressure on Israel, the occupying power, to immediately stop these attacks, and to urgently provide international protection for civilians, including journalists, in the Gaza Strip.
PCHR reiterates that journalists enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law akin to civilians. According to Article 79 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which codifies customary international law status, “Journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in zones of armed conflict are civilians within the meaning of Article 50 (1).” As such, they enjoy the full scope of protection granted to civilians under international human rights law, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Israel has ratified but refuses to apply to the occupied territory, just as it denies the applicability of international humanitarian law.
PCHR emphasizes that the willful killing of journalists constitutes a war crime within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to Article 8 of the ICC Rome Statute. Such an act also constitutes arbitrary deprivation of life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the perpetrators must be held accountable. The targeting of journalists is also a violation of the right to freedom of the press and freedom of expression as guaranteed under international human rights law, particularly Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In light of these violations, PCHR urges the international community to pressure the occupying power to immediately stop targeting journalists and to take immediate action to provide international protection for civilians, including journalists, in the Gaza Strip. PCHR also calls upon international journalism organizations, including the International Federation of Journalists, to take action to hold Israel accountable for the killing and targeting of journalists in Palestine, especially in the Gaza Strip.