Gaza / PNN /

Three Palestinian journalists have been killed and another sustained injuries after Israeli military aircraft launched a new wave of aerial raids against targets across the besieged Gaza Strip.

Journalists Saeed al-Taweel,Hisham al-Nawajha and Mohammad Sobh were killed in the airstrike on a residential building in western parts of the enclave early on Tuesday, while they were covering the evacuation of a threatened building.

Hisham al-Nawajha, was injured and is currently receiving treatment, according to a written statement by Salama Marouf, the head of the Media Office in Gaza.

The office said both Taweel and Sobh were clearly identifiable as press members. They were wearing safety gear and distinctive journalist markings, which the office said should have been easily discernible to the aircraft.

“Hours earlier, we had cautioned about the occupation’s aggressive intentions towards journalists and media entities, especially after several media headquarters were alerted to evacuate. This appears to be an attempt to muffle the truths they report,” the statement said.

Earlier on Monday evening, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that three other Palestinian journalists had been killed since the breakout of hostilities.

One was wounded and two others were reported missing since Saturday.

For its part the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA) denounces the persistence of the Israeli occupation forces in committing more serious crimes and attacks against journalists and media outlets in Palestine. The most recent of which was the martyrdom of journalists MUHAMMAD AL-SALHI and IBRAHIM LAFI by the live bullets of the occupation forces in the Gaza Strip yesterday morning, Saturday, while covering the events east of Bureij in the middle of the Gaza Strip on the border strip. Journalists NIDAL AL-WAHIDI and HAITHAM ABDEL-WAHID also went missing and contact with them was cut off while covering the events near the Beit Hanoun checkpoint.

The martyrdom of the “Fourth Authority” Agency photographer, MUHAMMAD AL-SALHI, and the “Ain Media” Agency photographer, IBRAHIM LAFI, and the loss of the “New Press” platform photographer, the “Al-Najah” Channel photographer, NIDAL AL-WAHIDI, and the “Ain Media” Agency photographer, HAITHAM ABDEL WAHED, occurred yesterday, Saturday, October 7th. Moreover, Al-Ghad channel correspondent, journalist IBRAHIM QANAN, was also injured by fragments of a missile that targeted Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, as part of an escalating bloody series of Israeli attacks against journalists and media freedoms while covering the events that broke out, as the Israeli occupation forces bombed the Strip with missiles, which led to the martyrdom of 232 citizens and wounding more than 1,700.

The Israeli bombing destroyed the house of the director of Zaman Radio, journalist RAMI AL-SHARAFI, completely and the house of the broadcaster of the Al-Quds Today Channel, BASIL KHAIR AL-DIN, was also destroyed, in addition to the complete or partial destruction of some media institutions, including: the headquarters of the “Al-Ayyam” Newspaper in the Palestine Tower, Fadel Shanaa Foundation, Shehab Agency, and Gaza FM Radio.

In light of the continuation and escalation of the Israeli occupation’s crimes against journalists and media outlets in Palestine, foremost among which are the crimes of killing journalists and targeting them during their work, MADA Center would like to point out that with the martyrdom of journalists AL-SALHI and LAFI, the number of journalists killed by Israel and its authorities since the beginning of the year 2000 and until now has risen to 50 male and female journalists.

MADA Center confirms that the impunity of the perpetrators of all these crimes and hundreds of other Israeli crimes and violations against journalists and media outlets in Palestine is what encouraged the Israeli Occupation to continue and escalate in committing more of them, as has been happening in the West Bank and Gaza for days. Accordingly, MADA Center renews its call for international organizations specialized in human rights and media freedoms to prosecute the perpetrators of all these crimes, including soldiers, officers, and those responsible for issuing the instructions that lead to these crimes and attacks, and to bring them to justice, as the only key to putting an end to the murders of journalists and other serious crimes and attacks that target freedoms and media outlets in Palestine. MADA also calls on them to reveal the missing journalists who were cut off from contact while carrying out their work and to clarify their fate.