Israel has also detained tens of Palestinian journalists, some of whom their whereabouts are unknown.
The United Nations deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq denounced on Thursday the targeting by Israeli occupation forces of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, warning of the disturbing number of journalists killed in the besieged Strip.
In a press briefing that touched on a number of issues, Haq was asked by one of the reporters about Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists, bringing up the case of Al-Jazeera photojournalist Fadi al-Wahidi, who was shot at by Israeli occupation forces along with Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, while covering the latest Israeli aggression in the north of Gaza.
Haq stressed that the UN has repeatedly condemned Israel’s targeting of journalists.
“No journalists should be killed in this conflict,” he emphasized.
“And yet you’ve seen an alarming number of journalists, both killed and injured and our thoughts go out to your injured colleague,” Haq continued.
The Isr*eli courts continue to refuse to reveal the fate of journalist Nidal Al-Wahidi. Nidal has been missing since October 7th and his fate remains unknown until now. pic.twitter.com/qUOQ90kUBM
— Sara Rey (@SaraReyi) October 7, 2024
Gaza-based journalist Anas Al-Sharif said on social media on Wednesday on the Israeli attack on Palestinian journalists that Israeli “gunfire was directed at the Al-Jazeera team, injuring its photojournalist Fadi al-Wahidi with a bullet to the neck during coverage.”
Due to the severe injuries he sustained, al-Wahidi will remain permanently paralyzed.
Deliberate Targeting
The Israeli occupation army has deliberately targeted Palestinian journalists during the one-year-old-genocide killing 176 since October 7, according to a statement issued by the Gaza Media Office.
Israel has also detained tens of Palestinian journalists, some of whom their whereabouts are unknown.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society announced on September 2 that the Israeli army has detained, since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, over 98 Palestinian journalists, 52 of whom remain in Israeli prisons.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) revealed in a statement that 15 of the 52 imprisoned journalists are being held under administrative detention while six are women journalists and no less than 17 are from the besieged Gaza Strip.
Palestinian cameraman Fadi al Wahidi when he was shot and seriously wounded by israeli occupation forces in #Jabalia.
Doctors: If he woke up from his coma, he would suffer quadriplegic paralysis along of his life! pic.twitter.com/rsjOImopzm
— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) October 11, 2024
The Palestinian Prisoner Society, which advocates for the rights of Palestinian prisoners, named Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdelwahid as among the detained journalists from Gaza who were the subject of forcible disappearance with no information about their conditions.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on its part issued a statement on September 3, noting that “since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much-needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict”.
“If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York commented.
⚡️JUST IN: Journalist Fadi Al-Wahidi, 24, is in a coma and PARALYZED FOR LIFE after being shot in the neck by the Israeli army. pic.twitter.com/3XpuyfPeSq
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) October 10, 2024
International Condemnation
Israel’s killing and detention of Palestinian journalists have been met throughout the genocide by international condemnation from various UN agencies and organizations that defend the rights of journalists.
One of those is Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which organized “flash protests” in 10 countries across the globe on September 26 to pay homage to Palestinian journalists killed during the nearly one-year genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) said in a statement that the protests are organized to pay homage to the over 130 Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli occupation army, “32 of whom were murdered while working.”
The ‘flash protests’ were held the whole day on September 26 in Germany, Brazil, Spain, the United States, Britain, France, Senegal, Switzerland, Taiwan and Tunisia.
🚨Breaking: In his final moments, journalist Fadi Al-Wahidi was documenting the brutal massacres committed by the Israeli army in northern #Gaza, before being critically injured by an Israeli sniper with a shot to the neck. pic.twitter.com/KIQaWg2W8S
— Nour Naim| نُور (@NourNaim88) October 9, 2024
RSF announced that the aim behind the “global awareness campaign” is to “alert the international public to the gravity of this crisis: the alarming rate at which these journalists are being killed is jeopardizing the right to free and independent information.”
“The massacre of journalists in Gaza must end. The Israeli army’s elimination of journalists in Gaza – over 130 killed in less than a year – threatens to create a complete media blackout in the blockaded enclave,” RSF’s Director General Thibaut Bruttin said.
“These attacks target not only the Palestinian press, but the international public’s right to information that is reliable, free, independent, and pluralist from one of the most closely watched conflict zones on the planet,” he added.
Bruttin ended by demanding, “protection for Gaza’s journalists, an end to impunity, and that foreign journalists be given access to the strip. Our right to information is at stake.”
(PC, Anadolu)
