The deadliest assignment in the world – Reporting from Gaza

Over the past year and a half, the world has watched the war in Gaza unfold in its most brutal form. It is a conflict that has killed more than 50,000 people, thousands being tortured in Israeli prisons and almost all of the 2.3 million residents there have been displaced multiple times, with their homes bombed and then bulldozed to rubble.

The Israelis have imposed a media blackout, no journalists or media organisations are allowed to report from Gaza or the west bank, except when it suits Israel; everyone remembers the hospital fiasco, when the Israeli army toured the hospital attempting to demonstrate its use as a Hamas bunker.

Ever since then world media has relied on the courage of local Palestinian journalists who are the only ones capable of providing crucial insight on what is happening in Gaza to the world. But the genocide in Gaza has made the small territory the most dangerous places in the world to report, according to the New York based press freedom monitor Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Simply put, there is no other place on earth where a journalist can be targeted in the crosshairs of Israeli sniper rifle, or targeted using bombs.

More than 170 journalists in Gaza

CPJ said more than 170 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict.

Parisian Reporters Without Borders, another press freedom organization headquartered in Paris, puts the number at more than 200 journalists.

Reporting on the genocide is a deadly assignment for these journalist being Palestinian some how makes that acceptable for the west. If Putin was killing as indiscriminately as Netanyahu is, there would be an uproar in parliament, but these journalists rarely get a mention on the inside pages.

To put this job in perspective, most war correspondents have to endure harsh conditions whilst reporting, it goes with the territory, but in almost every case, a correctly designated press credentials ensures some level of protection, from both sides. But in Israel, if your video gets views, likes shares, that makes you a ‘legitimate target’.

Surviving the night is the least of your problems

If you survive the night there are other challenges for local reporters, no war protection, the lack of communication and electricity, and the Israeli imposed blockade means often there is no food or clean water. Some journalists have lost family members, friends and homes. Internal pressures in Gaza, which is sealed off by Israel and Egypt, have added to the impossible environment in which journalists have to operate.

“It’s hard to describe what it feels like to be in Gaza. The constant noise of the bombing, the explosions, the number of people killed, it’s indescribable,” Safinaz al Louh, a freelance journalist in Gaza, who lost her brother, a cameraman, in the war.

Another Palestinian journalist, Salma al Qaddoumi, told EU News that the displacement and separation from family had been difficult to cope with during the 15 months of war before the pause in the fighting.

“Because displacement was frequent, you came to settle in one place, and then you have to start all over again, knowing that nowhere is really safe,” Al Qaddoumi said via WhatsApp from Gaza. She was injured while reporting in southern Gaza during the war in an incident in which her colleague was killed.

As fighting resumes following the collapse of a ceasefire, the dangerous, sometimes deadly reporting conditions have returned.

Journalists accused, judged and assassinated on the battlefield

On March 24, Israel executed two Palestinian journalists in Gaza in two ‘targeted’ consecutive Israeli air strikes.

One journalist, Mohammed Mansour was killed with his wife and son in an airstrike on his home in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Mansour worked for Palestine Today, a station that Israel claims is affiliated with the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, despite the links, Mansour was never accused of any terrorist activities

Later in the day, Hossam Shabat, a 23-year-old correspondent for the Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, was killed in an airstrike on his car in Beit Lahiya, a city in northern Gaza. In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it had “eliminated” Shabat, accusing him of being a “sniper terrorist,” a charge he and Al Jazeera previously denied. Israel has not provided any evidence to support that claim, with journalist in the region that Shabat was a young man, who was working diligently to document Israel’s war crimes.

After Shabat’s death, Al Jazeera news network, banned in Israel who bombed their offices repeatedly, strongly condemned what it called an assassination of its correspondent. It also called on the international community to condemn Israel’s “systemic killing of journalists.”

Israel’s definition of ‘Hamas’ is being questioned internationally

‘This nightmare has to end’ as crowds mourned for Al Jazeera correspondent Hossam Shabat.

Carlos Martinez, CPJ’s program director, condemned the March 24 attacks, saying in a statement, “This nightmare in Gaza has to end.”

“The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, whose killings may have been targeted. Journalists are civilians, and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone,” the statement continued.

The CPJ called for an investigation into whether the IDF deliberately killed the journalists. The non-profit organization released a report in February documenting at least 13 cases in Gaza and Lebanon where journalists were “deliberately targeted” by Israeli forces, adding that it was investigating more intentional killings.

The fact that anyone can be linked to Hamas by Israel is being questioned by journalists internationally, perhaps privately at the moment but the consensus is growing.

Aid agencies including the UN have long questioned Israel’s shady application of ‘legitimate targets’ as well their views on ‘collateral damage’, but the likes of BBC and CNN avoid still avoid these questions.

The IDF rejected the CPJ accusations at the time, saying that it “has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists.” The statement went on to say that the IDF “does not target civilian objects and civilians, including media organizations and journalists as such.” All the evidence, suggests otherwise.

Several press freedom groups have questioned labeling journalists as “terrorists” and the implication this has on the safety of journalists.

CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsburg said earlier this year, “Unless they’re engaged in direct incitement to violence or they’re actually part of militant activity, that does not make them targets for killing.”

Ban on foreign journalists continues

Local Palestinian journalists have been responsible for reporting on the war to a global audience. That is because the Israeli government has maintained its ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza despite calls from media and press freedom organizations worldwide for unfettered access.

Israel’s Supreme Court has yet to rule on a petition filed, which has been delayed and rescheduled 6 times, by the Foreign Press Association in Israel and the Palestinian territories demanding independent access for foreign media.

Until now, the Israeli army has only allowed some foreign and Israeli journalists into guided tours in Gaza as part of military embedded visits, which are tightly controlled and do not allow journalists to more around independently.

“That level of restriction is totally unprecedented,” Ginsburg said. “Certainly, when you talk to war correspondents that have covered everything from Chechnya to Sudan, not being able to have any access at all is completely unprecedented.”

Ginsburg said that because of this, all pressure rests on local Palestinian journalists to report what was happening. “Because they are Palestinian and local journalists, they have this additional doubt cast on what they’re reporting — on top of which, of course, they’re reporting on conditions of war.”

One thing is for certain, dictators and despots are watching and learning from Israeli war activities, as the genocide rages on through Gaza and now the West Bank.

How much longer can Netanyahu run his war to avoid prosecution.