CPJ says the Israeli military 'continues to act with complete impunity when it comes to killing journalists'.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denied that Israel has killed four Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past week as the Israeli military strengthens to explode on the a besieged area.
The US-based watchdog said in a statement on Monday that the international community had failed to hold Israel accountable for its actions amid the growing death toll of journalists and civilians there. the Gaza.
“At least 95 journalists and media workers will be killed worldwide in 2024,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg.
“Israel is responsible for two-thirds of these deaths and yet continues to be complicit in its killing of journalists and its attacks on the media.
The comments came a day after Israeli forces killed Ahmed al-Louh, a 39-year-old Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera as a cameraman, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Over the previous days, Israel also killed the journalists Mohammed Balousha, Mohammed Jabr al-Qrinawi and Eman Shanti.
Hours before the Israeli air strike Shanti killed with her husband and children in Gaza City on Wednesday, the Palestinian journalist wrote on social media: “Is it possible that we are still alive until now?”
According to local health authorities, Israel has more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza. It has also melted large parts of the enclosure and put a suffocating barrier on it, which has caused a deadly famine throughout the land.
Experts and United Nations rights groups have accused Israel committing genocide in Gaza.
Since foreign reporters are not allowed to work in Gaza, Palestinian journalists have been the only witnesses describing the horrors to the outside world. And that, rights advocates argue, has put them in the crosshairs of the Israeli military operating without regard to legal and ethical norms.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israeli forces have killed 196 Palestinian media workers in Gaza since the war began last year. CPJ, which has not included some media workers in its position, puts the death toll at 133.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera condemned the killing of al-Louh, accusing Israel of “systematic killing of journalists in cold blood”.
Al-Louh was the last of several journalists associated with Al Jazeera to be killed by Israeli forces since the start of the war. He was killed on the first anniversary of the killing of another Al Jazeera cameraman, Samer Abudaqa, in Israel's attack.
Earlier this year, Israel also killed the network's correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and his camera partner Rami al-Rifi in a targeted attack.
The Israeli military has not denied targeting al-Louh and other Al Jazeera journalists. Instead, they have tried to use a familiar excuse to justify their killing – accusing them, without evidence, of being members of Palestinian armed groups, which the network has denied to hard
On Sunday, the Israeli military said al-Louh was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, providing no evidence to support the allegations.
Israel had also claimed that al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas and later released what appeared to be a fabricated document as supposed evidence, which claimed that al-Ghoul had obtained the status of a Hamas fighter. in 2007 – when he would have been 10 years old.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel has been claiming – largely without evidence – that its attacks on Palestinians are part of its campaign against Hamas.
Israeli weapons are also on it bombed schoolshospitals and displaced persons camps, claiming they were targeting Hamas fighters.
