Dec 15, 2023 at 8:50 PM Update: 12 minutes ago
A cameraman from Al Jazeera was killed on Friday in an Israeli rocket strike in the Gaza Strip. Samer Abu Daqqa was reporting on an Israeli attack on a school in Khan Younis when he and a colleague were hit.
According to Al Jazeera Rescue workers were unable to reach Abu Daqqa immediately because the ambulance had to first receive permission from the Israeli troops. A few hours later, the ambulance was allowed through, but returned without the cameraman because the only road to the scene of the attack was blocked by debris. A bulldozer first had to clear the road.
Abu Daqqa was working in Gaza together with his bureau chief Wael al Dahdouh. Images show that Al Dahdouh was brought into a hospital covered in blood. Abu Daqqa is said to have been still trapped at the site of the attack at the time. Al Dahdouh lost several family members in an Israeli attack in Gaza at the end of October, including his wife and two of his children.
Samer Abu Daqqa, cameraman for Al Jazeera. Photo: X/ Mohamed Moawad
Dozens of journalists have already died in Gaza Strip
The United Nations Human Rights Organization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OHCHR) wrote in a statement on Thursday that it was alarmed at “the unprecedented number of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since October 7.”
OHCHR has verified the deaths of fifty journalists and media workers and has information that another thirty may have been killed. That would amount to about 6 percent of all persons registered with the journalists’ union in the Gaza Strip.
According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), 73 percent of all journalists and media workers killed in the Gaza Strip this year have been killed. “Gaza has apparently become the deadliest place in the world for journalists – and their families,” the OHCHR said.
According to the UN statement, reporting on the situation in Gaza is “severely hampered” by “the killing of journalists, their forced displacement from the north (of the Gaza Strip, ed.) and their severe restrictions on movement”. The OHCHR also notes that information from Gaza is already scarce due to power and internet outages due to the fuel shortage in the Gaza Strip and Israeli attacks on infrastructure.
The OHCHR calls for the protection of journalists who report on the situation in Gaza, often at the risk of their own lives. According to the UN organization, there must also be accountability for the deaths of journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Beeld: Getty Images
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MediaIsraelPalestinian TerritoriesMedia and CultureIsraeli-Palestinian Conflict
2023-12-15 19:50:16
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