Newest grievance by Paris-based press freedom group asks the court docket within the Hague to probe the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists.
Reporters With out Borders (RSF) has filed its second grievance with the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) for alleged struggle crimes dedicated by the Israeli military towards Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
The newest grievance by the Paris-based press freedom group filed on Friday asks the court docket within the Hague to analyze the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists killed within the besieged enclave from October 22 to December 15.
The checklist of journalists contains final week’s killing of Al Jazeera Arabic cameraman, Samer Abudaqa.
“RSF has cheap grounds to imagine that the journalists named on this grievance have been the victims of assaults amounting to struggle crimes,” a press release issued by the group mentioned.
“In line with the data collected by RSF, these journalists could have been intentionally focused as journalists. It is because of this that RSF is describing these deaths as intentional homicides of civilians.”
The RSF filed its first ICC grievance because the struggle started on October 31 over the demise of seven different journalists. The group says it has confirmed the deaths of 66 Palestinian journalists since October 7 when the Israeli assault started. Greater than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since.
The opposite journalists named within the RSF grievance are Asem Al-Barsh, a radio journalist for Al Najah who was killed by sniper hearth, and his colleague Bilal Jadallah of the Palestinian Press Home, who fell sufferer to a direct missile assault on his automotive.
Montaser Al-Sawaf, a cameraman for the Turkish Anadolu Company, and photojournalist Rushdi Al Siraj have been additionally killed in Israeli air raids on their houses.
Hassouna Salim of the Quds Information company was killed by a missile after receiving demise threats, and photojournalist Sari Mansour died in the identical assault, based on RSF.
Al Jazeera’s Abudaqa “seems to have been killed by a precision shot fired from a drone”, the RSF mentioned.
The incident, which the Al Jazeera Media Community has additionally determined to consult with the ICC, happened on December 15, when Abudaqa and Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh have been reporting on the bombing of a faculty used as a shelter for displaced folks in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip.
Dahdouh – who misplaced his spouse, son, daughter and grandson in a earlier Israeli bombing – was wounded within the assault however managed to achieve a hospital, the place he was handled for minor accidents.
Rescue groups have been unable to instantly attain Abudaqa and others on the web site as they wanted approval from Israeli forces to bulldoze via the particles to get to the situation.
By the point first responders arrived 5 hours later, the journalist had bled to demise.
The RSF mentioned it additionally supported the grievance filed by Al Jazeera Media Community concerning the deadly taking pictures of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin within the north of the Occupied West Financial institution on Could 11, 2022.
Concentrating on journalists is a struggle crime underneath Article 8 of the Rome Statute.
“In view of the bloodbath of journalists in Gaza and the focusing on to which they appear to be subjected, we name on ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to obviously state that he’s making it a precedence to elucidate the crimes dedicated towards journalists in Gaza and to prosecute these accountable,” RSF Secretary-Common Christophe Deloire mentioned within the assertion.
