Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war

[moniss]

This is the title to an article on the website for the Committee to Protect Journalists dated 8/8/24. They count 113 journalists and media workers killed since over the last months since October of last year. They say their investigations so far show that 3 of those killed were deliberately targeted by the IDF. It should be noted the IDF claims it never targets journalists but there are long running disputes about that and the CPJ and others have complained about the investigations never providing accountability.

For a bit of context about the current number of 113 it should be noted that CPJ began keeping these stats around the world in 1992. A CPJ report from 5/9/2023 carries the headline "Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable." In comparison the current death toll is extraordinary.

https://cpj.org/2024/08/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/#:~:text=113%20journalists%20and%20media%20workers%20were%20confirmed,killed%3A%20108%20Palestinian%2C%20two%20Israeli%2C%20and%20three%20Lebanese.

https://cpj.org/reports/2023/05/deadly-pattern-20-journalists-died-by-israeli-military-fire-in-22-years-no-one-has-been-held-accountable/

[Lonestarblue]

1. Isn't deliberately killing journalists a war crime?

Plus, another World Food Kitchen worker has been killed.

[moniss]

2. Yes I made a separate post about the WCK worker and

as far as a specified war crime it is not except that they are considered to be civilians and would have all of the legal protections for civilians under international humanitarian law. So the same prohibitions about targeting civilians would apply.

[Beastly Boy]

3. Just a quick search reveals that more than 3 alleged journailsts targeted by IDF were Hamas affiliates

Reports of available evidence included:
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s118c00ah0
https://www.jns.org/idf-two-slain-gaza-journalists-were-terror-operatives/
https://www.jns.org/al-jazeera-journalist-outed-as-hamas-commander/
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/hamas/idf-two-journalists-killed-in-gaza-combat-were-terror-operatives/2024/01/10/

Earlier claims by IDF of their affiliation with Hamas were summarily dismissed by mass media, even though evidence was eventually provided. As far as I know, none of the articles dismissing earlier IDF claims were corrected to reflect the now available evidence.

So CPJ is a bit behind in their investigations.

[moniss]

4. Thank you for the update and

as I noted this is a contentious matter and in the case of some journalists the UN has come into the fray as well. It is an extraordinary total and I note that I posted this right after the other post about the WCK worker being killed. In that post I noted that in these danger areas many NGO personnel are at risk. The causes can be accidental or from either side. The same of course can apply to journalists. I think what is the important takeaway is the large increase and trying to find out why such a difference compared to other times of conflict. Such as is it the severity of the conflict, increase in sheer number of media personnel in the combat zone, differences in movement/proximity of media personnel trying to more quickly enter areas of fighting etc.? So in other words can we find out better ways to reduce the number of casualties while still allowing the reporting function?

One thing that impacts the public perception of an IDF denial is a demonstrated aggressive hostility by the political leadership to media under certain circumstances. It is not a uniquely Israeli government attitude or action since all countries have varying levels of issues with the media in their countries and many certainly far more aggressive than Israel.

The Reuters journalist killed in Lebanon is I believe the one that the UN is focused on. He was the one in the car marked TV along with others who were wounded. Apparently after investigation by Reuters, AFP and others there was substantial video and eyewitness accounts that they were not in the vicinity of any active fighting. Issam Abdallah is I believe one of the 3 that CPJ is referencing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issam_Abdallah

[Beastly Boy]

5. The large increase in the casualies is unsurprising.

Hamas militants do not identify themselves as combatants and routinely wear civilian clothes, often using jackets identifying themselves as "press", or members of various NGOs. I believe in legalese this is called perfidy, which in itself is a war crime. With this in mind, it is also a commonplace occurrence that the said militants keep moving into civilian areas, even the designated "safe zone" areas.

No rules for them.

[moniss]

6. Unfortunately regarding NGO's nearly every country abuses

the groups by infiltrating them with intelligence/special ops people for the purposes of things like access to in order to place surveillance equipment etc.