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The third major press appeal, and then they are killed in Gaza

The Qatar Press Center has issued an appeal to a number of UN bodies, human rights organizations, and Arab and international journalistic and media institutions, urging them to assume their responsibilities and take immediate action to pressure Israel to stop the bloodshed and to provide legal and logistical protection for journalists and media professionals in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. The center also called for legal measures to hold those responsible for these grave violations accountable and to compensate the victims.

The statement emphasized that during the war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation forces deliberately targeted journalists and media professionals through incitement campaigns, intimidation, administrative detention, torture, and systematic bombing of their homes and known locations. These attacks resulted in the killing of 214 journalists — many of whom were clearly identified by their press vests — in an attempt to silence free media and prevent the truth from reaching the world, in flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law.

The statement read: “In light of this unprecedented and ongoing assault against journalists and media workers, who have become direct targets of Israel’s killing machine, the Qatar Press Center calls on UN bodies, human rights organizations, and media institutions to assume their responsibilities and act urgently to stop the bloodshed and provide legal and logistical protection for journalists and media professionals in the Palestinian territories.”

It added: “The Center urges the relevant organizations and the international community to pressure Israel to allow international investigators and human rights organizations — including UN Special Rapporteurs, investigators from the International Criminal Court, and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry — to conduct comprehensive and independent investigations, and to take legal measures to prosecute and hold accountable those responsible for war crimes against journalists and media professionals, and to compensate the victims and their families for the violations they have endured.”

The Center also called for the release of all Palestinian journalists held under administrative detention or without charge, who are subjected to serious violations documented by civil society organizations and the United Nations.

Recipients of the Qatar Press Center’s statement include: the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the General Union of Arab Journalists, the Foreign Press Association (FPA), Amnesty International, the Global Investigative Journalism Network, the International Journalists’ Network (IJNet), the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB), the International Press Institute (IPI), and Human Rights Watch.