By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

PJS called on the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to issue a UN resolution to find a “deterrent and preventive mechanism” to protect Palestinian journalists.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) announced on Saturday that the number of Palestinian journalists killed during the one-year Israeli genocide on Gaza is more than double the annual world average, calling for an end to Israel’s impunity.

“The ongoing brutal massacre committed systematically by the occupation forces against Palestinian journalists in beloved Gaza to kill martyrs and witnesses to the truth will not pass without punishment for all those who decided and carried out this horrific massacre against journalism and humanity,” a statement by PJS read.

Marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, (PJS) considered Israeli crimes against Palestinian journalists as “the largest and most heinous massacre against journalists in the history of the media in the entire world.”

It affirmed its determination to exert all efforts on the international and legal levels to hold those in charge of these crimes accountable, calling on the United Nations to take action in that direction.

“The Syndicate reminds Mr. Karim Khan, the Deputy of the International Criminal Court, of the necessity of carrying out his legal duties according to his powers to quickly open an investigation into the complaints we submitted in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists,” the PJS statement read- 

“The Syndicate considers that continued procrastination hinders the achievement of justice and gives an additional green light to the occupation to continue committing more crimes of killing journalists,” it added.

In this framework, PJS also called on the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to issue a UN resolution to find a “deterrent and preventive mechanism” to protect Palestinian journalists in line with UN Security Council resolution 2222.

Resolution 2222, dating to 2015, obliges all states to protect journalists not solely as members of the civilian population but also due to their particular social function.

Moreover, the Palestinian Syndicate hailed the statement by the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay.

Azoulay affirmed in her Friday statement UNESCO’s “commitment to putting an end to impunity and ensuring the safety and protection of journalists.”

PJS quoted UNESCO’s statement outlining that “900 journalists have been killed since 2013 until now, which means that 20 percent of these crimes committed in the world over 11 years were committed by the occupation in Gaza in Palestine, but in just one year.”

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“The shocking number of journalists killed (900 journalists) indicates that the annual rate of journalists killed in the world is 82, while the Israeli occupation killed in just one year in Gaza more than double the number killed annually in all countries of the world,” PJS statement read.

According to the PJS, the Freedoms Committee of the Journalists Syndicate indicated that the Israeli occupation army killed 174 journalists since the start of the genocide on Gaza on October 7 of last year.  

‘Hands Off Our Media’

Israeli occupation forces also targeted journalists in Lebanon, with the latest attack killing three journalists in an airstrike on the residence of the media compound in the southern Lebanese city of Hasbayya on Friday, October 25.

They joined a large number of Palestinian and Lebanese journalists who were murdered at the hands of the Israeli army in the last year.

“The international community should shoulder its responsibility to provide protection for journalists who are routinely murdered by the Israeli army”, the Palestine Chronicle said in a statement.

Hands off Our Media: Palestine Chronicle Condemns Israeli Targeting of Journalists

“Labeling journalists as ‘terrorist’, then deliberately murdering them with impunity and with no accountability has been a regular event in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon,” it added.

This is completely unacceptable and sets a dangerous precedent where journalists will become easy targets, not only in Palestine and Lebanon, but across the world, the statement added.

Genocide Continues

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, 43,314 Palestinians have been killed, and 102,019 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.

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. 

(The Palestine Chronicle)