With the latest killing of journalist Abdullah Shakshak, the number of Palestinian journalists targeted by Israel since October 7 stands at 173.
The Israeli occupation army killed on Saturday Palestinian journalist Abdullah Shakshak bringing the number of journalists killed since October 7 of last year to 173, the Gaza government media office announced.
Shakshak, whose name was added to the long list of journalists targeted by the Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, was reportedly targeted by an Israeli quadcopter drone in Rafah, south of the Strip.
The Gaza media office condemned in a statement the murder of the Palestinian journalist who it said “worked with several Arab media outlets,” according to Anadolu news agency.
Journalist Abdullah Shakshak was shot and killed by an Israeli military quadcopter in Rafah earlier today, according to medical sources pic.twitter.com/dp5ZYlcubP
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) September 14, 2024
The statement denounced the Israeli occupation army’s targeting of Palestinian journalists and urged the international community to hold Israel’s government accountable for its “crimes against journalists.”
Furthermore, the media office urged “the international community and media organizations to “deter the occupation, pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to stop the genocide and the killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists.”
Systematic Targeting
In a letter addressed to the European Union over 60 international media organizations implored the EU to “take action against the Israeli authorities’ unprecedented killing of journalists and other violations of media freedom” and requested a halt to the EU-Israel Association Agreement in addition to imposing targeted sanctions on those responsible.
The letter addressed to the EU High Representative Josep Borrell, European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and EU member state foreign ministries described the Israeli authorities’ unprecedented killing of journalists and other violations of media freedom as a breach of the obligations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
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The organizations said that these practices “are part of widespread and systematic abuses committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and elsewhere, as documented or acknowledged by Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs, UN experts, the International Court of Justice, and in a request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.”
Along these lines, a group of more than 100 journalists, news outlets and press freedom organizations have urged the US government to “immediately cease” the transfer of all weapons to Israel.
“Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today,” the group said in a letter addressed to US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
The letter was signed by 113 journalists including Chris Hedges and Abby Martin, 20 news outlets including CounterPunch and Mondoweiss, and seven press freedom organizations including Courage Foundation, FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) and Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Israel Kills another Journalist in Gaza – Death Toll Rises to 169 since October 7
Gaza’s 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.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 41,206 Palestinians have been killed, and 95,337 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
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.
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.
(PC, Anadolu)
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