Palestine’s Gaza City
The Israeli army is directly inciting Palestinian journalists and media workers, according to the Gaza Media Office, which claimed on Wednesday that this is paving the way for more crimes against reporters.
The charges come after Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said that six Al Jazeera journalists were linked to Palestinian resistance organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad, according to papers discovered in the Gaza Strip.
“As part of its larger attack on the press, the Israeli army is trying to morally kill the journalists by disseminating false information and misleading narratives to the public, to demonize them,” the Office stated in a statement.
Noting that “these journalists have successfully conveyed the reality of the occupation and its crimes to the world,” the statement also said that the military has persisted in inciting journalists who are reporting on the genocide against the Palestinian people.
The narratives put forth by the military are “fabricated stories meant to silence the truth and justify ongoing crimes against civilians, including women, children, and the elderly,” according to the declaration.
“The Israeli army presented flawed information, publishing lists of individuals injured in the 2018 Great March of Return protests and falsely labeling them as resistance fighters,” the media office said about the materials Adraee cited.
It stated, “These names belong to people who are getting medical care for injuries they suffered during the protests, including journalists who were hurt while reporting on the events.”
The statement stressed that the documents “have no security or military significance” and chastised Israel for purposefully combining irrelevant data to pass it off as reliable information to the public.
Many of the journalists mentioned by Adraee have previously been targeted by Israeli troops in recent months, including Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal Al-Arrouqi.
.Further underscoring the conflict between Israel and the media, Adraee asserted that “the majority of the journalists exposed by the Israeli army are at the forefront of spreading Hamas propaganda, particularly in their work with Al Jazeera in northern Gaza.”
Despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has persisted in its ruthless bombardment of the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year.
According to local health authorities, about 42,800 people have subsequently died, primarily women and children, and over 100,400 have been injured.
Nearly the whole population of the territory has been forced to flee due to the Israeli assault, and the continuous blockade has resulted in acute shortages of food, potable water, and medication. There is a possibility that
The International Court of Justice is considering a genocide complaint against Israel for its activities in Gaza.
UN experts urge Israel to cease assaults and intimidation of journalists in the occupied West Bank.
GENEVA—United Nations experts* denounced today the violence, intimidation, harassment, and obstruction of journalists in the occupied West Bank, which has lately increased as a result of Israel’s unexpected military campaign that began on August 27.
“The attacks and harassment of journalists in the illegally occupied West Bank are blatant attempts by the Israeli army to thwart independent reporting on possible war crimes, and we strongly condemn them,” the experts stated.
At least three instances of Israeli security personnel firing live bullets at reporters or their cars while they were covering military operations and civilian fatalities occurred in Jenin and Tulkarm in September. Even though several of the journalists were wearing recognized press jackets, the incident resulted in at least four injuries.
Since August 27, the Israeli military has threatened journalists, including a team from Al Jazeera, and prevented them from carrying out their duties, forcing them to flee. In one instance, the military compelled them to remove content from their phones after searching them. Numerous journalists have reported being pursued by Israeli security forces’ bulldozers, and at least one has been unjustly detained and questioned.
“Seeing Israeli forces in the West Bank flagrantly violate international law and show the same disregard for journalist safety as in Gaza is extremely upsetting. The experts stated that foreign journalists’ work is severely hampered by the continued denial of access to Gaza and the current threats to their safety in the West Bank.
At least 29 journalists have been arrested by Israeli soldiers and three by the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. A few of them are still in administrative custody. There is ample evidence of cases of journalists, especially female journalists, experiencing sexual and gender-based violence and other forms of mistreatment while in Israeli prison.
“The punitive nature of such deprivation of liberty, as well as the right of journalists to tell the world about the assault on the Palestinian people’s self-determination, continued dispossession, forced displacement, and oppression,” the experts said, citing reports of torture, ill-treatment, and violations of due process in the context of an occupation that the International Court of Justice recently declared unlawful.
They expressed worry that Israeli authorities have never conducted a thorough investigation into any case of a journalist being killed, injured, or harassed in the occupied Palestinian Territory, nor have they ever brought the accused offenders to justice. Despite ample proof of Israeli troops’ involvement, the iconic murder of Shireen Abu Akhleh in 2022 is still unresolved.
“Israel must respect the work of journalists and media workers in the occupied Palestinian Territory and ensure their safety by international humanitarian and human rights law as long as it is an occupying power,” the experts stated.
Israel’s disproportionate use of force against Palestinians, as the International Court of Justice has reminded us, is incompatible with its duties under the Hague Regulations, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and adds to the illegality of its occupation.
The experts urged the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice to take the widespread and organized assault on media professionals and journalists into account as part of their current investigations.
“The genocide in Gaza has overshadowed the suffering of journalists in the West Bank, but this recent escalation makes it imperative that the international community seriously condemn Israel’s actions and pay more attention to what is happening in the West Bank.” Regarding this matter, the specialists are in communication with the Israeli government.
In an unprecedented wave of detentions, 31 Palestinian journalists are presently being incarcerated in Israeli prisons.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which denounces the use of detention to silence the Palestinian media and calls for the protection of all journalists and the release of those detained, claims that Israel has arrested 38 Palestinian journalists since the beginning of its war with Hamas on October 7 and is currently holding 31 of them, the majority of them without any charges.
The extent of Israel’s arbitrary arrest of Palestinian journalists will not be overshadowed by the release of reporter Diaa al-Kahlout on January 9 after more than a month in custody. Since October 7, at least 31 people have been detained; 29 of them are in the West Bank, one is in Gaza, and one is in East Jerusalem. Most of them are currently being kept in Israeli jails without being charged.
With the conflict still raging in the Gaza Strip, this extraordinary surge of arrests and detentions has been carried out specifically to silence Palestinian media. All journalists who have been held are freelancers or employees of Palestinian media organizations, including J-Media, Maan News Agency, Sanad, and Radio al-Karama.
West Bank crackdown of epic proportions
The West Bank has seen the majority of the arrests. Only five of the 34 journalists who have been detained there since October 7th have been released, according to RSF’s count. Two were being held at the start of the conflict. The majority of the jailed journalists are kept in undisclosed places in Israel and are not permitted to visit.
Some of those who have been freed, like freelancer Somaya Jawbara, who was given bail on November 22, 17 days after her detention, must stay at home, are prohibited from speaking to the media or accessing the Internet, and are under surveillance for an indefinite amount of time.
Israel has been holding journalists in “administrative detention” since the beginning of the conflict. This process detains someone who planned to breach the law without informing them of any charges. They may be imprisoned for up to six months, with the option to be extended with only an Israeli judge’s approval. Currently, at least 19 journalists are being held under “administrative detention.” On false accusations of instigating violence, the other ten journalists are being detained pending trial.
As a result of their work, at least 31 Palestinian journalists are presently detained in Israeli jails. We must put an end to this fear, this intimidation, and these ceaseless attempts to stifle Palestinian journalism with bombs, bullets, or chains. We demand that all journalists in custody be released immediately and that they be given immediate protection.
Inhumane treatment of journalists in custody
There are journalists in custody who are being treated cruelly, inhumanely, or degradingly. Diaa al-Kahlout, the recently hired correspondent for the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news website, was one example of this. On December 7, an Israeli soldier in the northern Gaza Strip uploaded a video that his family recognized. Amid a group of captives who were partially nude, Al-Kahlout was spotted kneeling in the roadway.
He had been taken into custody at his Beit Lahia house a few hours earlier by an Israeli patrol. His home was destroyed by fire. He was freed together with his two brothers, who had also been arrested. According to multiple RSF sources, the reporter was tortured while temporarily detained in Israel’s Eshel jail. Before his release today, January 9, the Israeli government remained silent about his whereabouts for over a month. Families of journalists who are detained are generally never informed about their detention or current circumstances.
The dreadful experience of journalists under detention in Gaza
In Gaza, where two journalists are now in custody, several reporters have experienced equally painful detention lasting less than 48 hours.
One of the few reporters to stay in Beit Lahia was Said Kilani, a freelance photojournalist who works for the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and other international outlets. Kilani and a medical team were seized on December 13 while he was reporting on the combat as Israeli soldiers pushed into Kamal Adwan Hospital. “At first, I concealed my press vest and helmet because I was terrified that the Israeli army was targeting journalists,” he claimed.
In Conclusion
Kilani was detained in a military installation in the northern part of the Gaza Strip for fourteen hours. Although he maintains that he instantly identified himself as a journalist to those holding him, he claimed that “we were forced to take our clothes off, we were insulted and humiliated.” He was freed and discovered his wife and kids, who had also been arrested and then freed. Kilani had secreted journalistic equipment in the hospital, and their house had been set on fire while they were being held.
Tragic event for journalism
Since October 7, at least 80 journalists have been slain in the Gaza Strip, 18 of whom were killed while doing their jobs, according to evidence confirmed by RSF. Since the beginning of the conflict, Israeli strikes have also totally or partially destroyed more than 50 media outlets in the Gaza Strip.
