Israel’s killing of at least 225 Palestinian journalists since October 7, 2023, briefly attracted international attention after it was calculated that more journalists have died in Gaza than died in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined. As part of its effort to eliminate witnesses and control the narrative, Israel has, as one commentator wrote, transformed Gaza into journalism’s graveyard.
Israeli forces have used drones to hunt down media workers from afar, such as when it targeted Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif alongside Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed al-Khalidi in a tent housing journalists near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. And the Israeli army has also executed journalists at close range, as when a sniper killed Saed Abu Nabhan in central Gaza’s Nuseirat area.
Many other journalists have been injured, detained, or disappeared, while Israeli forces have systematically damaged or destroyed more than one hundred governmental and nongovernmental media institutions and offices, including television, satellite, and radio stations; broadcasting towers; media service offices; and newspaper headquarters.
Assassinating journalists constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity, because under the laws of armed conflict, journalists are considered civilians, and it is thus illegal to deliberately target them. But journalists are not afforded any other special protections, despite the high risks associated with their job.
The drafters of these laws, most recently in formulating the 1977 additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions, recognized the difference between civilians and journalists, understanding that the latter are frequently present on the front lines. Yet inexplicably, they failed to afford them any additional protections beyond those already bestowed upon civilians.
The…
Auteur: Neve Gordon
