By IFEX
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemns the latest crime committed against Palestinian journalists while carrying out their professional duties. Last Sunday evening, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft bombed a tourist chalet in the town of Al-Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, which had been used as a workplace and residence by several journalists working for PMP, a satellite broadcasting company.
The bombing resulted in the martyrdom of journalist AHMAD ABU MUTAIR, a broadcast engineer at the company, and the death of the child BASHAR AL-ZA’ANIN, son of photojournalist MOHAMMAD AL-ZA’ANIN. It also caused injuries to cameraman ISMAIL JABR, while journalists BASSEM AL-ARAJ, AHMAD AWKAL, and MOHAMMAD NASSAR survived the attack.
The strike also destroyed the company’s satellite broadcast vehicle, putting it out of service after sustaining a direct hit, and caused severe damage to filming equipment and broadcast cables, in addition to damaging several journalists’ personal vehicles at the scene.
MADA affirms that this bombing constitutes a clear war crime and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits targeting civilians and media professionals. It comes as part of the systematic policy of the occupation to silence the truth and prevent coverage of the crimes and violations taking place in the Gaza Strip.
MADA stresses that Palestinian journalists, who have lost their media offices due to repeated bombings, have been forced to use alternative locations to continue their professional work in satellite broadcasting and event coverage. Targeting them under these circumstances is further evidence of the deliberate nature of this aggression. The attack also occurred during a period when a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip was supposed to be in effect, which represents a flagrant breach of the agreement and reaffirms the occupation’s ongoing disregard for international obligations and contempt for all humanitarian norms and conventions.
MADA calls on the international community, the United Nations, and organizations concerned with press freedom to take urgent action to stop the targeting of journalists and media institutions in Gaza, to launch an independent international investigation into the crimes committed by the occupation against media professionals, and to hold those responsible accountable in accordance with international law.
