GAZA: As Israel’s attacks on Gaza City, mostly targeting civilian populated areas, continued on its fourth day, claimed the lives of four Palestinian journalists who were covering the aftermath of the Israeli forces’ bombardment and civilians’ evacuation.
The Palestinian Press Union confirmed that these latest casualties bring the total number of Palestinian journalists killed since Saturday to eight. The Gaza journalists’ syndicate had previously announced “the martyrdom of three journalists in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing Israeli aggression.”
Among the victims, Said al-Taweel, director of Al-Khamisa news agency; press photographer Mohammed Sobboh, and Hisham Nawajhah, a correspondent for a Gaza news agency, were identified by Salameh Maarouf, the chief of Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office.
They tragically lost their lives while covering the evacuation of a residential building near Gaza City’s fishing port. Maarouf condemned Israel’s “criminal behavior against journalists.”
Eight Palestinian Journalists Killed in Gaza Conflict
The journalists had been positioned several dozen meters away from the building following a warning call from the Israeli army to a resident about an imminent strike, as reported by an AFP correspondent. However, witnesses noted that the Israeli strike hit a different building closer to where the journalists were stationed.
Moreover, later on Tuesday, the press union reported the loss of Salam Khalil, the head of its committee of women journalists, along with her husband and children in the northern Gaza Strip, due to a “treacherous” Israeli bombing of their family home.
Furthermore, journalist Asad Shamlakh was reported killed on Sunday, and the media office statement added that two cameramen were missing, with ten journalists wounded. Three other journalists had already been killed on Saturday, according to the Palestinian statement and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based media rights group, emphasized the importance of not targeting journalists, as they are civilians, and called on all sides to recognize their crucial role in providing accurate reporting during times of crisis, conveying news from Gaza and Israel to the world.
