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The Qatar Press Center strongly condemns the assassination of journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and photographer Rami Al-Rifi

Palestinian media announced this evening that Palestinian journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, correspondent for Al Jazeera in Gaza, was martyred when the occupation bombed a group of journalists near the house of the martyr Ismail Haniyeh in the Beach Camp, west of the Gaza Strip.

It also announced the martyrdom of photojournalist Rami Al-Rifi in another bombing that targeted another group of journalists on Aidiya Street, west of Gaza City. The Qatar Press Center condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation forces’ continued targeting of journalists in Gaza with killing and abuse, the latest of which is the assassination of journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and photographer Rami Al-Rifi.

The Center confirms that the Israeli army’s targeting of journalists’ homes and locations inside Gaza is a blatant violation of international law, and a heinous crime to silence free media and obstruct its transmission of the truth to the world.

The Center denounces the Israeli occupation’s systematic policy of arresting and assassinating journalists and their families 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 and international, human rights and media organizations to condemn the targeting of journalists in Gaza with murder, arrest and intimidation, and to take urgent action to hold the Israeli occupation accountable before international courts for war crimes against journalists and media professionals, and to pressure it to stop crimes of genocide and stop the assassination of Palestinian journalists. The Center calls on the international community to put pressure on Israel to release journalists detained in Israeli prisons who are suffering from compelling conditions that deprive them of the most basic prisoners’ rights stipulated in international laws and conventions.

The Center notes that with the martyrdom of Al-Ghoul and Al-Rifi, the number of journalist martyrs has risen to (165 male and female journalists) since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip, on the seventh of last October.

The last post by journalist Ismail al-Ghoul was reporting the event from the ruins of the house of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, who was assassinated today in Iran.

Ismail al-Ghoul is a Palestinian journalist and correspondent for Al Jazeera in Gaza in 1997 in the Beach camp, north of Gaza.

He emerged as one of the prominent journalists who covered the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. Months ago, Ismail Al-Ghoul was arrested by the Israeli army from inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. This arrest came after the occupation forces stormed the hospital, where he and a number of other journalists were severely beaten before being detained for 12 hours.

Al Jazeera condemns Al Jazeera Network said, in a statement, that the targeting is “another attempt by the occupation army to intimidate journalists to prevent them from reporting the horrific crimes it commits against innocent civilians in Gaza.”

The network confirmed that what colleague Ismail al-Ghoul was exposed to came within a series of systematic targeting of Al Jazeera by the occupation authorities, which included the assassination of colleagues Sherine Abu Aqla, Samer Abu Daqqa, and Hamza al-Dahdouh, the bombing of its office in Gaza, the deliberate targeting of a number of its journalists and their family members, and the arrest and intimidation of its crews in the field.. Widespread condemnation Wael Al-Dahdouh, director of Al-Jazeera’s office in Gaza, journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul, in a post on the (X) platform, mourned the martyrdom of our colleague Ismail Al-Ghoul and said: To God we belong, and to Him we shall return... This is our condition and the condition of our people. A martyr is mourned by a martyr, his news is conveyed by a martyr, a martyr shrouds him, a martyr prays for him, and a martyr mourns him. Some of them are waiting to be a martyr There's no strength except with Allah.

Mohamed Moawad, managing editor at Al Jazeera, said on his page on the (X): platform: “With a heavy heart, we mourn the loss of our colleague, journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul, who was killed in an Israeli air strike while courageously covering the events in northern Gaza.

Moawad praised Al-Ghoul's professionalism and dedication, noting that he had drawn the world's attention to the suffering and atrocities committed in Gaza, especially in Al-Shifa Hospital and the northern neighbourhoods.

He added: "Without Ismail, the world would not have seen the horrific images of these massacres." The Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation’s targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists.