Somebody Tell Israel Journalism Is Not a Crime; Somebody Tell Israel To Stop Killing JournalistsIsrael kills another three journalists this time in Lebanon. The world watches silently. Our colleagues are targeted and we muffle our condemnation. I know of what I speak: STOP KILLING JOURNALISTS.
Israel on Saturday targeted and killed three journalists in Lebanon, a crime Israel has committed countless times since the 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel when the world it would seem decided Israel’s right to self defense trumped all humanitarian and international laws, justified genocide, the killing of 20,000 Gazan children, who are among the 70,000 Gazans Israel has killed in its brutal bombing campaign that continues today. Since signing a cease fire agreement last October, Israel has killed nearly 1,000 Gazans, and has allowed in only a trickle of aid, compared to the extraordinary need, seeking relentlessly to deny Gazans their dignity. But the world is mostly silent. Israel is allowed to operate with impunity. By refusing to take action against Israel, the world has shown there is no crime too horrific for Israel to commit. It has also openly and loudly declared that a Palestinian life, a Lebanese life, an Iranian life, a Syrian life counts for much less than that of an Israeli life. The world, by its silence, has also declared, in clear violation of Article 33 of the Geneva Convention which outlaws collective punishment, that because Hamas attacked Israel, all Palestinians are to blame, and because Hezbollah operates in Lebanon all Lebanese are to blame. As a result, the world has stood by and allowed Israel to destroy homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, fertility clinics, apartment buildings, even steal another’s land and call it a buffer zone. In the occupied West Bank the Israeli army watches and aids illegal radical Israeli settlers who attack, kill and steal homes from Palestinians and the world watches with little more than a “tsk tsk, shouldn’t do”. Reports of torture, beatings, and sexual crimes committed against Palestinians in Israeli jails are given only passing attention. There is no accountability, no international investigations, no sanctions. Nothing. In March 2024 The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon declared the Israeli forces targeted and killed “clearly identifiable” journalists. They fired a tank a tank at them. They killed Reuters’ Issam Abdallah, a veteran video journalist and Agence France-Presse (AFP) photojournalist Christina Assi, was seriously hurt. She lost her right leg. Six journalists were injured in that attack and Issam was killed. Nothing. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based journalists’ advocacy group, issued a report last month that said Israel was responsible for killing more journalists last year than every other country combined. Of the 129 journalists killed last year __ a record number __ 86 were killed by Israel and most of them were Palestinians. There has been no accountability. No sanctions. Nothing. Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 200 journalists, most of them Palestinians. Israel has targeted and killed families of Palestinian journalists, maimed others and denied access to Gaza for international journalists. Israel has also used a well known militant tactic, known as double tapping, which is to drop one bomb, wait maybe five minutes for journalists, first responders and often the curious to gather before dropping another killing them all. Israel does that. I have reported on militant terrorist groups using that tactic. It’s horrific . Israel does that but with impunity. Last August Israel used that double tapping tactic to kill five journalists covering an Israeli bombing of a Gaza hospital. The first bomb fell, the reporters ran to cover the dead and dying when the second bomb hit. They died. Among them was 33-year-old Mariam Abu Dagga, who freelanced for The Associated Press. There has been no independent investigation. No blame. No accountability. Nothing. On Saturday Israel targeted a car in Lebanon and killed three journalists. They were Fatima Ftouni, her brother and video journalist, Mohammed Ftouni and Ali Shoeib. Shoeib was working for Al Manar TV, apparently affiliated with Hezbollah. The other two were not. They worked for the Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV. Fatima Ftouni had just finished a live report when Israel attacked. Shoeib was a well-known Lebanese war correspondent who had covered southern Lebanon for three decades. Journalism is not a crime. Journalists are not targets. I know of what I speak. My friend and colleague, Anja Niedringhaus, was killed by an Afghan police commander who emptied his AK-47 into her and myself. Anja died immediately. I was hit with 7 bullets, but survived with serious injuries. We are not targets. What we do is not a crime. The journalists’ community has been too silent, too willing to accept Israeli explanations for its killings, stopping short of excusing Israel, but too often, too many have cast aspersions on our Palestinian colleagues questioning their credentials. Shame on all of us.
© 2026 Kathy Gannon |