Edited by HAQQI, december, 16 2023
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Since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian war, on October 7, 2023, ninety civilian journalists who covered the war have been killed in the Gaza Strip; the last of whom to pay the price is photographer Samir Abou Daka, who was killed on December 15, 2023. at the same time, the Israeli authorities agreed to an official mission to cover the destruction of a school which had just been bombed. It is hard to believe that their deaths were accidental. The operating mode or modus operandi is the same, so some are directly threatened by the Israeli authorities with phone calls so that they stop covering the war, and if they refuse, and this is always the case, they have directly targeted their families by bombarding their homes with missiles fired by uncrewed aircraft, followed by a second shot to finish them off. Sometimes, Israelis prevent emergency services from reaching the injured, leaving them to bleed to death. For former journalists such as Abou Daka, who has worked for the Qatari channel Al Jazeera for thirty years, the Israeli authorities know in advance the response of these journalists who refuse to give in to their threats. The soldiers behind the screens directing the uncrewed aircraft know very well who is being targeted since all the civilian journalists and photographers wear vests on which the word PRESS is written in large letters in front and back. They have their photos and authorization to work. Therefore, it is difficult not to know who the targeted person is. The Israeli government controls and tries to hold all the information that comes out of Gaza to impose its discourse. In this regard, there is a deliberate desire for this war to occur behind closed doors because they know the importance of information. The goal is clear: that of preventing the truth from being known by world opinion to prevent free people from putting pressure on their governments to stop this madness of massacre of civilians of which children and women are the greatest victims. The spokespersons, whether that of the Ministry of Defense or that of the Israeli Prime Minister, are stingy about the losses of soldiers killed, the wounded as well as the prisoners, which is contradicted by the number of hospitalizations for the injured. Killing a journalist while covering war is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law (Chapter 10, Rule 34). Noteworthy, Israel has not respected any rule of international humanitarian law since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the help of the American government. HAQQI presents to the family of Abou Daka and the large family of journalists its sincere condolences and joins the journalist community and all those who love peace to strongly condemn the crimes directed against Palestinian civilians in general and journalists in particular.