‘Obliterating the Truth’ – Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian Journalist, His Entire Family
Palestinian journalist, Muhammad Salama, has been killed along with his entire family in an Israeli airstrike on his home on Tuesday.
By Palestine Chronicle Staff Yet another Palestinian journalist was killed on Tuesday in an Israeli air raid on the besieged Gaza Strip, increasing the death toll of members of the media targeted by Israel since October 7 to 133, according to officials and state media.
Muhammad Salama, who worked for the Palestinian Al Aqsa channel, was killed along with his entire family when Israeli warplanes targeted his home in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, the Gaza Media Office said in a statement.
The office accused the Israeli army of killing Palestinian journalists in order to “obliterate the truth,” the Anadolu news agency reported.
On Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stressed that journalists in Gaza were paying an “unprecedented toll.”
“CPJ emphasizes that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, in a statement on the organization’s website.
Mansour added that “journalists across the region are making great sacrifices to cover this heart-breaking conflict.”
“Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats,” he stated, adding that many “have lost colleagues, families, and media facilities, and have fled seeking safety when there is no safe haven or exit.”
According to the CPJ, more than three quarters of the 99 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2023 “died in the Israel-Gaza war, the majority of them Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza.”
The conflict claimed the lives of more journalists in three months than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year, the organization said.
Three weeks ago, Al-Jazeera correspondent Ismail Abu Omar and cameraman Ahmed Matar were seriously injured following an Israeli drone attack in the Mirage area, north of the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza
An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that an Israeli drone fired at least one missile towards the two colleagues, which immediately led to the amputation of Abu Omar’s right leg and the severe injury of his left leg.
ICC Probe
In January, the office of the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, confirmed to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) that “crimes against journalists” are included in its ongoing investigation into the situation in Palestine.
Khan’s office assured the RSF that “crimes against journalists are being examined by the prosecutor’s office, among other potential crimes, as part of the ongoing investigation into the situation in Palestine, and RSF’s objectives and actions must be supported and are of crucial importance in Gaza and elsewhere.”
It added that “journalists are protected by international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute and must not under any circumstances be targeted in the exercise of their important mission.”
Rising Death Toll
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, 30,717 Palestinians have been killed, and 72,156 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and 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.
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.’
(PC, Anadolu)