On eve of World Press Freedom Day, Gaza mourns death of over 140 journalists in Israeli attacks

Relatives, loved ones and colleagues of Al-Aqsa TV anchor and journalist Mohammed Salamah, who was killed in an Israeli army attack on a house, attend his funeral ceremony held in front of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah of Gaza on March 06, 2024 [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]

At least 141 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed and 70 others injured in Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, the government media office said on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement marking the World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, the media office said at least 20 journalists are still held in Israeli prisons.

“This is part of the genocidal war waged by the Israeli Occupation army against civilians, especially children and women in the Gaza Strip,” it added.

The media office held Israel and the US “fully responsible for the Israeli crimes against journalists and media professionals.”

It called on the international community to “protect Palestinian journalists and pressure the Israeli Occupation to stop its genocidal war against journalists, civilians, children, women and the Palestinian people.”

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas last 7 October, which killed some 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Nearly 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,800 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: Gaza photographer wins 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award

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