Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed five journalists on Sunday, the government media office in Gaza informed. The five journalists have been identified as Saed Radwan who worked with Al-Aqsa TV, Hamza Abu Salmiya who worked with Sanad News Agency, Haneen Baroud who worked with Al-Quds Foundation, Abdulrahman Al-Tanani who worked with Sawt Al-Shaab, and Nadia Al-Sayed who worked with multiple news outlets.
The media office in its statement asserted that Israel’s “unprecedented crimes” against journalists in Gaza will not prevent them from “exposing the fascist entity.”
“We strongly condemn the unprecedented and ongoing crimes of the occupation against Palestinian journalists, as it was announced that 5 of them were martyred today, and we confirm that [Israel] will not intimidate them or prevent them from continuing their role in exposing the fascist entity,” the statement read.
The media office also called for action from the international community against the targeting of Palestinian journalists, who work in the most difficult circumstances and risk their lives to convey the suffering of their people to the world.
“The systematic crimes against journalists in the Gaza Strip require the international community and its institutions to take serious steps to stop them and hold accountable this fascist government that has made the Palestinian journalist a target for killing and revenge,” the media office said in its statement.
The attack comes days after the Israeli army killed three journalists in southeast Lebanon, while they were sleeping in guesthouses allotted to media persons.
Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary called it a “targeted attack.”
“This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with premeditation and planning, as there were 18 journalists present at the location representing seven media institutions,” he wrote in a post on X.
On October 23, the Israeli army released a list of six Palestinian journalists working with Al Jazeera, accusing them of being members of Palestinian armed groups.
Al Jazeera rejected the allegations terming it “baseless” and said that it was “a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide.”
According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), 131 journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon in the past one year -the deadliest time for journalists in last four decades.
According to Palestinians officials, the death toll is over 176. The Israeli army has also detained over 70 journalists from Gaza.
