A ‘catastrophe’: UNHCR urges international community to act against Gaza killings
Thameen Al-Kheetan, spokesperson for the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza is “a clear breach of international humanitarian law” and constitutes a “war crime”.
“Any condemnations by member states today need to be followed by action,” Al-Kheetan told Al Jazeera. Countries with “leverage” need to pressure Israel into stopping its war on Gaza, he said. “It is the responsibility of the international community to do all that it can to stop this war,” he added.
“The apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, when combined with the fact that Israel is denying access to foreign journalists, appears to indicate a deliberate attempt by Israel to limit the flow of information from Gaza,” Al-Kheetan said.
He described the targeted killing, which took place near the entrance to al-Shifa Hospital, as a “catastrophe”.
‘Something particularly psychopathic about the lie and the crime’: Bishara
Israel’s latest killings of journalists in Gaza are an addition to a long list of criminality, said Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.
“We at Al Jazeera do not want to be the story; we are forced to be the story because of the criminality of the Israeli government,” he said.
He said that while Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was reporting “every minute of the day” and while Israeli claims he was a Hamas member were lies, several other journalists were killed alongside him even though Israel had not made any allegations against them.
“Why assassinate him when he is among his colleagues? How many more journalists is it acceptable to kill as collateral damage?” Bishara asked.
“There is something particularly psychopathic about the lie and about the crime.”
He said al-Sharif is part of the fabric of Jabalia, the refugee camp where he comes from, whose residents have sacrificed their lives for the past six decades. Bishara said the timing of the killings was no coincidence either, as media reports have put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under significant international pressure as he plans to seize Gaza City.
RSF calls on international community to stop Israeli crimes in Gaza
Louise Bichet, project director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), has condemned Israel’s “murder” and “targeted killing” of Al Jazeera’s journalists in Gaza.
RSF is appealing “very strongly and firmly” to the international community to react, condemn, and take measures against the Israeli military, Bichet told Al Jazeera.
Israel must protect Palestinian journalists, ensure medical evacuation for the wounded, and grant international reporters access to the Gaza Strip, Bichet said.
The latest targeted killing of journalists is part of a “huge and repeated tactic of defamation campaigns … without bringing tangible and serious proof,” she said.
