“These actions represent a blatant violation of international laws and conventions that protect journalists and safeguard freedom of the press.”
Another Palestinian journalist has been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the besieged Gaza Strip, raising the death toll since October last year to 191, local authorities said on Saturday.
Mamdouh Ibrahim Qanaita, a news editor at the Al-Aqsa Channel, was the latest victim of Israel’s ongoing assault on the enclave, according to Gaza’s government media office.
Breaking: An Israeli drone has just assassinated my friend journalist Mamdouh Qneita in the courtyard of the Baptist Hospital with a gunshot to the head. #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/tWMeoQmP5x
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) November 30, 2024
“The zionist occupation continues its systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists as part of its broader war on the Palestinian people,” the media office said in a statement.
“These actions represent a blatant violation of international laws and conventions that protect journalists and safeguard freedom of the press,” it added.
The office called on international organizations, UN bodies, and media advocacy groups “to take immediate action to deter the occupation and hold it accountable in international courts for its ongoing crimes against Palestinian journalists.”
On Wednesday, journalist Alaa Barhoum was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza, along with eleven other Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Condemnation
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the killings of journalists in Gaza as “unacceptable,” demanding protection of the press.
Palestinians bid farewell to Palestinian journalist Mamdouh Qanita, who was shot and killed yesterday by an Israeli quadcopter in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/wwObP8ssrM
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 1, 2024
“Journalists in Gaza have been killed at a level unseen in any conflict,” he said in a message read at the opening of the UN International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East 2024 in Geneva.
“The ongoing ban preventing international journalists from Gaza suffocates the truth even further,” Guterres stressed.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) has called on Guterres to issue a UN resolution to find a “deterrent and preventive mechanism” to protect Palestinian journalists.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza stated that Israeli forces committed four massacres in the past 24 hours, with numerous victims still trapped under rubble and in the streets. Ambulance and rescue crews have been unable to reach many areas due to ongoing attacks.… pic.twitter.com/5ljeZDxoJs
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) November 30, 2024
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,382 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 105,142 wounded.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
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The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
