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Qatar Press Center calls on the international community to protect journalists in Gaza

Qatar Press Center calls on the international community to protect journalists in Gaza Doha - March 24, 2024: The Qatar Press Center renews its condemnation of the Israeli occupation forces’ continued harassment of journalists and social media activists in Gaza, where they are subjected to deliberate liquidation and repeated arrests, the latest of which is the arrest of Palestinian journalist “Rula Hussein” in the village of Al-Ma’asra in Bethlehem. The Center affirms its denunciation of the Israeli occupation’s systematic policy of arresting and killing journalists in Gaza and the West Bank, to hide the genocidal massacres committed by Israel against civilians, and to prevent media professionals from revealing the truth to the world. The Center calls on the international community to condemn the arrest of journalists and target them with murder, detention, and intimidation, and to work to release male and female detainees who are languishing in Israeli prisons under compelling conditions that deprive them of the most basic prisoners’ rights stipulated in international laws and conventions. The Qatar Press Center holds the Israeli authorities fully responsible for the safety of the detained journalists. The Israeli occupation continued its aggressive policy of targeting Palestinian journalists, as it arrested journalist Rula Hussein in the village of Al-Ma’asra in Bethlehem, without an arrest warrant, and deprived her child of her mother. Rula Hassanein works as a freelance journalist for a number of media outlets. Addameer Foundation’s lawyer requested the release of the detained Palestinian journalist, due to her health condition, as she suffers from chronic kidney disease, in addition to the health condition of her daughter, who also suffers from an immune disease, but the occupation authorities rejected the request. Dr. Shadi Brejiya, husband of journalist Rula Hussein, confirmed that the occupation forces raided the house at dawn, confiscated her computer and mobile phones, handcuffed her, and arrested her. Since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, human rights organizations have monitored the arrest of 61 male and female journalists in the West Bank, 40 of whom are still in detention, including 3 female journalists, according to a joint statement by the Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. The arrest of journalist Rula Hassanein in the West Bank coincides with the martyrdom of 3 journalists in Gaza, which brings the number of journalists martyred since the beginning of the aggression to 136, according to the government media office in Gaza. The "Government Media Journalist" explained in a statement that the journalists, Abdul Rahman Saima, the cameraman for the "Raqmi TV" channel, and Dr. Mahmoud Issa, the presenter of religious programs on the Al-Quds Al-Youm satellite channel, were martyred in the occupation's bombing of two homes, and the photojournalist, Muhammad Al-Rifi, was martyred as a result of his injury at the Kuwait roundabout in the south. East of Gaza City.