Israel fully responsible for crimes against Palestinian journalists, Gaza media office says

The government media office (GMO) in the Gaza Strip has strongly condemned Israel’s killing of dozens of Palestinian journalists across Palestine, holding fully responsible the Tel Aviv regime for crimes against them.  

In a statement released on Thursday, the office praised Palestinian journalists in the war-torn Gaza Strip for successfully conveying their media message and defeating “the false narrative” of the occupying regime, as hundreds of them were either martyred or wounded and detained during their missions.

The statement was issued on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which is a day to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives during their missions.

“This dear occasion passes differently this year, as the Israeli occupation has killed 141 journalists and media personnel among us, wounded more than 70, and detained dozens in its prisons, including 20 journalists, as part of the genocide war waged by the "Israeli" army against civilians, especially children and women in the Gaza Strip,” the GMO said.

The UN World Press Freedom Day, which falls on May 3rd each year, has been commemorated worldwide since 1992.

“We strongly condemn the crimes and massacres perpetrated by the army of the occupation against journalists throughout the Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza Strip, and call on everyone to expose its practices and crimes against our people and our sanctities, and against our heroic prisoners in its unjust prisons,” the statement further read.

The Gaza-based media office also held Israel “fully responsible for its crimes against journalists and media professionals, killing them and subjecting them to genocide, as well as holding the American administration responsible as it is engaged in the genocide, participating with weapons and military equipment, and supporting the occupation unlimitedly in all directions.”

It also urged the international community to protect Palestinian journalists and to pressure Tel Aviv to halt the ongoing genocide in the war-torn Palestinian enclave, particularly the killing of journalists.

“We believe that it is time for there to be a real outcome to the legal movement concerning the crimes committed by the occupation against journalists before the International Criminal Court,” the GMO stressed, asking, “If now is not the time to see the Israeli war criminals in the docks, then when can it be achieved?”

'Systematic murder': Another Palestinian journo killed in Israel's airstrikes on southern Gaza

An Israeli airstrike has killed Palestinian journalist Rizq al-Gharabli, pushing the death toll of journalists killed in Gaza since October 7 to 124.

Last month, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that 140 journalists had been killed in the Israeli military's raids, bombardments and missile attacks across the Gaza Strip.

The Paris-based international non-governmental organization also called on the international community to exert more pressure on Israel to prevent such a painful tragedy from happening in Gaza.

The death toll from Israel’s genocidal campaign against Gaza has risen to 34,568 since October 7 while 77,765 others have also been wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza. Among the dead are more than 14,500 children and 9,500 women.

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