CPJ is deeply saddened by the killing of Al-Jazeera Arabic camera operator Samer Abu Daqqa and the injuries suffered by his colleague,Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh, in a southern Gaza drone strike on December 15, and calls on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the attack to hold the perpetrators to account.
Al Dahdouh, who also suffered the loss of family members in an Israeli airstrike in October, was transported to a nearby hospital in Khan Yunis, but Abu Daqqa remained trapped where the strike occurred, in a school surrounded by Israeli forces. Al-Jazeera videos show Al Dahdouh pleading for the evacuation of Abu Daqqa, but medics were unable to reach him.
CPJ is also calling for a transparent investigation into the December 15 beating of Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf by Israeli soldiers. Alkharouf was covering Friday prayers near Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem when a group of Israeli police and soldiers attacked him, according to Anadolu Agency, footage shared by The Union of Journalists in Israel, and other reports.
CPJ has also called for accountability in the case of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed by an Israeli shell, according to e reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reuters, and Agence France-Press.
CPJ’s research showed that as of December 17 at least 64 journalists and media workers were among the more than 19,000 people killed since the Israel-Gaza wart began on October 7. About 18,000 died in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank and about 1,200 in Israel. This deadly toll on journalists’ lives is coupled with harassment, detentions, and other reporting obstructions as they go about their work across the region.
