By Quds News Network
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Four Palestinian journalists were killed in separate Israeli attacks within five days amid the ongoing assault in Gaza, with media freedom organizations accusing Israel of committing “war crimes” against journalists there.
Eman Al-Shanti
Israeli airstrikes killed Al-Shanti, her husband and three children on December 11. The attack targeted an apartment in Al-Malash Tower in Sheikh Radwan, northwest Gaza City.
Hours earlier, Al-Shanti wrote on Facebook: “It is unbelievable that we are still alive? May God have mercy on the martyrs.”
Eman Al-Shanti, 38, was a broadcaster at Voice of Al-Aqsa Radio. She was known for her program Asl Al-Qissa (The Root of the Story), which aired on social media platforms.
Mohammed Baalousha
Baalousha was killed when a bomb was dropped from an Israeli quadcopter on Ahmed Yassin Street in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood on December 14.
Baalousha, who worked for Al Mashhad television, had been shot by an Israeli sniper in January 2024. Despite his injury and the absence of medical care, he continued to report and cover the Israeli assaults.
Mohammed Al-Qrinawi
Al-Qrinawi was killed along with his wife, Maram, and their three children: Jaber, Sidra, and Ayat. Israeli warplanes targeted their home in the Al-Bureij refugee camp on December 14. He is a journalist at Sanad News Agency.
Ahmed Al-Louh
An Israeli airstrike killed Al Jazeera photojournalist Ahmed Al-Louh in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on December 15.
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The attack targeted a Civil Defense site near the camp’s marketplace, according to Al-Awda Hospital. Medical staff confirmed that the body of Al-Louh arrived at the hospital after the strike.
“Massacre” of Journalists in Gaza
Two separate reports from media freedom organisations that analysed the deaths of reporters worldwide this year found Israel carried out a “massacre” of journalists in Gaza.
An annual report published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday found the Israeli army killed 18 journalists – two in Lebanon and 16 in Gaza – as they were working this year.
The toll, equivalent to around a third of the total worldwide of 54, was described by RSF as “an unprecedented massacre”.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” the organisation said in its report, which covers data up to December 1.
In total, “more than 145” journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war there in October 2023, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths, the report found.
RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army”.
In a separate report published on Tuesday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.
The IFJ and RSF figures vary because they use different methodologies to calculate the tolls. RSF only records journalist deaths in its report if they have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity”.
The IFJ also condemned Israel’s military. “The war in Gaza and Lebanon once again highlights the massacre suffered by Palestinian (55), Lebanese (6) and Syrian (1) media professionals, representing 60 percent of all journalists killed in 2024,” it said.
IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger described 2024 as “one of the worst years” for media professionals. He condemned the “massacre taking place in Palestine before the eyes of the entire world.”
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.
Critics accuse Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.
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“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account,” Programme Director at Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Carlos Martinez de la, said.