Al Jazeera has accused the Israeli army of “hunting” journalists in Gaza following the deaths of two more of its staff working for a Qatari satellite channel, killed in an attack blamed on Israel.
Hamza Wael Dahduh, son of the head of the bureau Al Jazeera in Gaza, Wael al-Dahduh, and Mustafa Thuraya, a freelance cameraman working for AFP, were killed on January 7, 2024, while traveling in a car in Rafah, in the southern Palestinian territory.
“Al Jazeera strongly condemns the attack by Israeli occupying forces on the vehicle of Palestinian journalists.” – the channel said in a statement, accusing Israel of “violating the principles of press freedom.”
According to human rights organizations, Israel is deliberately killing journalists in order to stop the flow of information about the Palestinian genocide. According to human rights organization Press Emblem Campaign, from October 7 to December 31, 2023, 81 journalists were killed in the Gaza Strip (106 according to the Gaza Strip, discrepancies in numbers are explained by differences in the qualifications of the journalistic profession). This is the largest number of casualties among media workers in such a short period of time.
All of them were Palestinians, most of them worked for several media outlets, including foreign ones. They were killed in Israeli strikes, often in their homes, together with members of their families.
In addition to the Gaza Strip, 4 journalists died during the war in Ukraine (1 Italian, 1 French, 2 Russians), as well as 4 in Israel. Nine journalists were killed in Mexico and five in Guatemala. Three victims each were recorded in Cameroon, India, Lebanon and Pakistan, and two victims each in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Haiti, Nigeria, the Philippines and the United States of America. One journalist was killed in each of the following countries: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Honduras, Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, Paraguay, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Egypt.
The Middle East accounts for 64% of cases, or 90 deaths, followed by Latin America with 20, Asia with 12, Africa with 11, Europe with 4 and North America with 3. The organization notes that 2023 was the deadliest year for journalists in the last 10 years.
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