Ramallah – 23 Jan. 2026 – The Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) strongly condemns the heinous crime perpetrated last Wednesday, by Israeli occupation forces, which resulted in the martyrdom of three Palestinian journalists in a direct and deliberate strike on their vehicle in central Gaza while they were performing their professional duties covering humanitarian stories for displaced persons.
According to eyewitnesses, the journalists who were killed are: AFP cameraman ABDEL RAOUF SAMIR QISHTA (26 years old), cameraman for the Egyptian Relief Committee for Gaza MOHAMMED SALAH QISHTA (34 years old), and freelance photojournalist ANAS GHANEM (28 years old). Their vehicle was struck by a direct missile fired from an Israeli drone while they were documenting the establishment of a shelter camp for displaced families. The attack completely engulfed the vehicle in flames, burning the bodies of the journalists.
MADA views this crime as part of a systematic pattern of deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists by Israeli occupation forces rather than an isolated incident. It reflects ongoing attempts to silence Palestinian media and prevent documentation of crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
With this attack, the number of journalist martyrs in Gaza since the start of the ongoing genocidal war on the Strip rises to 307, marking one of the most dangerous periods for Palestinian media. These journalists sacrificed their lives in pursuit of truth, falling while performing their professional duty to document the suffering of their people.
MADA emphasizes that this deliberate targeting constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, in particular Article (79) of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, which guarantees protection for journalists as civilians, UN Security Council Resolution 2222 on the protection of journalists in conflict zones, and Article (33) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment. The three journalists were carrying out legitimate professional work covering a purely humanitarian issue and posed no military threat, confirming that the attack was deliberate, systematic, and aimed at eliminating witnesses to war crimes.
MADA holds the international community and global human rights and media organizations directly responsible for the continuation of such crimes due to their silence and the complete impunity enjoyed by Israeli occupation forces. Each journalist killed without accountability effectively grants Israel a green light to commit further atrocities.
MADA reiterates its call for the international community to take immediate action to halt the killing of Palestinian journalists, impose real sanctions on Israel to compel it to cease these practices, and urges international media and human rights organizations to issue clear and explicit condemnation, pressuring their governments to take concrete measures against Israel. It also calls on news agencies and media organizations employing Palestinian journalists to provide the necessary protection for their correspondents and condemn attacks against them.
