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Qatari Press Center Condemns the Assassination of 5 Journalists and Their Families in Gaza

The Qatari Press Center strongly condemns the assassination of five journalists, including a female journalist and her husband, as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip this morning. This raises the number of journalists martyred to 224 since the beginning of the genocide war on Gaza.

The center affirms that Israeli forces have been waging a war of extermination on Gaza since October 7, 2023, deliberately targeting journalists at their workplaces and homes in retaliation, aiming to obscure the truth, silence free media, and impose the Israeli narrative to justify daily massacres, in blatant violation of international and humanitarian law.

The center renews its call on the international community and international, human rights, and media organizations to condemn the targeting of journalists in Gaza and to take urgent action to hold Israel accountable before international courts for war crimes against journalists and media personnel. The lack of accountability has encouraged Israeli forces to continue assassinations, arrests, and intimidation of journalists in plain sight of the world.

The center also calls on the international community to pressure Israel to release journalists detained in Israeli prisons, who suffer harsh conditions that deprive them of the most basic rights guaranteed to prisoners under international laws and conventions.

Israeli forces deliberately target journalists and media institutions during their aggression on Gaza, having injured around 400 journalists, arrested 100, and destroyed most local and international media offices in the Strip. All local radio stations have been forced to shut down due to displacement, lack of electricity and internet, and the absence of conditions necessary for journalistic work.

International Appeal

In mid-April, the center issued an international appeal through official letters to international organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, the International Federation of Journalists, and Human Rights Watch, calling for the protection of journalists in Gaza and the West Bank and the accountability of aggressors.

The appeal stated: In light of the unprecedented and ongoing assault on Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza and the West Bank, who have become direct targets of the Israeli killing machine, the Qatari Press Center urges UN bodies, human rights, journalistic, and media organizations to assume responsibility and take urgent action to stop the bloodshed and provide legal and logistical protection to journalists in the Palestinian territories.

Ongoing Massacres

On Sunday, five journalists were martyred, including a female journalist and her husband, in the ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Journalist Noor Qandeel, her husband Khaled Abu Seif, and their daughter were killed in a strike that targeted their home in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Photojournalist Aziz Al-Hajjar was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike that hit their home in the Al-Saftawi neighborhood, northern Gaza Strip.

Photojournalist Abdulrahman Al-Abadleh was killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Al-Qarara northeast of Khan Younis.

Journalist Ahmed Al-Zainati, his wife Noor Al-Madhoon, and their sons Mohammed and Khaled were killed when their tent in Sanabel Camp near the Kuwaiti Field Hospital west of Khan Younis was bombed.