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“MADA”: Condemns the targeting of five journalists during the past hours, which brings the number of journalist martyrs to 158

Ramallah – 7th July 2024. The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms condemns in the strongest terms the occupation forces’ targeting of journalists and media freedoms by committing the most heinous crimes against them, the latest of which is the targeting of six (6) journalists since the beginning of this month of July, five (5) of whom were killed during the past few hours, which raises the number of martyrs of the media movement since October 7th to 158 journalists.

Last Friday night, journalist SAADI MADOUKH and journalist AHMED SUKKAR were killed in an Israeli bombing on a house belonging to the MADOUKH family in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza Strip. They were followed by the martyrdom of journalist AMJAD AL-JAHJOUH, his wife, journalist WAFA ABU DABAAN, their child, and eight other members from their family, and journalist RIZQ ABU SHAKYAN in Gaza City, while the journalist for Al-Quds TV, MOHAMMAD AL-SAKANI, was killed during a bombing that targeted a group of citizens in the “Al-Tuffah Neighborhood” in Gaza City on the morning of Thursday, the 4th of July.

“MADA” Center condemns the occupation forces’ persistence in committing systematic murders against journalists and the media movement, which continue to go unpunished, and affirms that no matter how long they continue and no matter how extreme they are, they will not be able to undermine the determination of journalists who insist on performing their work with all professionalism in order to expose the occupation's practices against them and all civilians in Gaza Strip.

MADA Center stresses the need to stop all forms of violations committed against journalists, most notably murder crimes that constitute a blatant violation of international laws that must be implemented on the ground, the most important of which is Security Council Resolution No. (2222) regarding the Protection of Journalists. MADA calls on international bodies concerned with freedoms to put pressure on the Israeli official authorities to stop targeting journalists and open an independent international investigation into 158 murders committed against Palestinian journalists to date. Based on the provisions of many international laws, including Article (79) of the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention (1949) for the Protection of Civilians during Military Conflicts, which stipulates “civilian journalists who perform their duties in areas of armed conflict must be respected and treated as civilians, and protected from every form of deliberate attack, provided they do not carry out actions that are inconsistent with their status as civilians”.