The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) marks the most sorrowful International Day to End Impunity after a year of unprecedented killing of journalists in Gaza and Lebanon at the hands of Israeli forces. Not since the 1990s when over 90 of Algeria’s independent journalists were murdered has the Middle East region suffered such huge losses of journalists being targeted and killed for their profession, with reports of over 170 journalists killed in Palestine and eight killed in Lebanon with impunity. In fact, this past year has been the deadliest year for journalists killed ever recorded.
GCHR Executive Director Khalid Ibrahim said, “If we were to publish a full report detailing all the journalists killed in the MENA region to mark the International Day to End Impunity, it would be almost 200 pages long, with this endless list of journalists killed during a conflict that has engulfed the region, from Gaza to Lebanon, where GCHR is based.”
The International Day to End Impunity is marked annually on 02 November by UNESCO, with the participation of GCHR, to draw attention to the lack of accountability for attacks on journalists. This year, the UNESCO event will take place at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 06-07 November under the theme of Safety of Journalists in Crises and Emergencies.
Palestine
GCHR’s partner MADA Palestine has documented the killing of at least 178 journalists from the beginning of the bombing of Gaza on 06 October 2023 until 06 October 2024 when 19-year-old journalist Hassan Hamed (pictured above) was killed in the Israeli bombing of Jabalia refugee camp. Hamed, who worked for Al-Jazeera and other networks, was killed a few days after he said an Israeli officer warned him to stop filming in Gaza or he and his family would be targeted. He was previously shot at.
Other international press freedom groups put the figure at around 130 journalists. Regardless of the number, the death toll is shocking. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that among those directly targeted and killed this year in Gaza by the Israeli forces are Palestinian journalists Hamza Al-Dahdouh, Mustafa Thuraya, Ismail Al-Ghoul, and Rami Al-Refee.
Lebanon
Eight journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon since the beginning of the war in October 2023, marking an unprecedented targeting of the country’s journalism profession.
Just last month, on 25 October 2024, three Lebanese journalists were killed in an Israeli air strike on guesthouses in Hasbaya in south-eastern Lebanon where witnesses told the BBC that more than a dozen journalists from at least seven media organisations were staying. The attack came at 3am while the journalists were sleeping and with no warning. News photos showed a bombed courtyard containing cars clearly marked with the word “press”, leading Lebanon’s information minister to call the attack deliberate. Maharat Foundation also described it as a “war crime”.
The attack injured several people and killed camera operator Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda of the Al-Mayadeen satellite news channel, and camera operator Wissam Qassem from Al-Manar TV.
In September, two other journalists were killed by separate Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon. Al-Manar TV cameraman Kamel Karaki was killed in an Israeli air strike in Qantara on 24 September 2024. Al-Mayadeen journalist Hadi Al-Sayed was killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted his home in Borj Rahhal on 23 September 2024.
Last year, Issam Abdullah, a 37-year-old journalist, was killed on 12 October 20 in a targeted Israeli airstrike while reporting from town of Alma Al-Shaab on the clashes in southern Lebanon. He worked with the Reuters News Agency in Beirut for 16 years.
On 21 November 2023, journalists Rabih Al-Maamari and Farah Omar, who worked for Al-Mayadeen, were killed while reporting on clashes in southern Lebanon by an Israeli air strike on the city of Tayr Harfa. The attack came after Israel’s decision to shut down Al-Mayadeen TV in Israel on 12 November 2023, leading the TV channel to conclude that its journalists were deliberately targeted.
Iraq and Syria
Elsewhere in the region, women activists were killed in Iraq and Syria in 2024.
On 26 April 2024, blogger Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi (Om Fahad) was assassinated in front of her home in central Baghdad by a gunman who shot her after she stopped her car in front of her house, killing her immediately and fleeing on his motorcycle to an unknown destination.
Syrian women’s rights activist Heba Suhaib Haj Arif, a member of the Syrian Women’s Network, was found murdered in an alarming manner in her home in the city of Bazaa in Aleppo Governorate on 27 February 2024. Sources close to her confirmed that she had received threats two weeks before her murder to resign from working at Yeni Adam (The New Step). She submitted a complaint to the town police, which is controlled by gunmen from the Al-Hamza Division, but she did not receive protection.
Recommendations
GCHR calls for accountability for the killing of journalists in activists, and an end to targeted murders of those who are killed for their profession or for speaking out about human rights issues on line. Under international law, journalists are protected during wartime and must not be killed under any pretext.
