The following editorial is from the opinion page of The Republican newspaper in Springfield. It reflects views of the newspaper’s leadership and not necessarily those of MassLive. Readers are invited to share their opinions by emailing to letters@repub.com.
The current government of Israel does not want the world to witness the death and deprivation its military is inflicting on civilians in Gaza. Since October 2023, following the deadly Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians and the taking of 251 hostages, foreign journalists have been prohibited from entering the region independently.
To fill that gap, international news organizations use Gazans to provide coverage of the nearly 2-year-old war. One such reporter, Anas al-Sharif, had been documenting food shortages in Gaza. An international group says widespread starvation now approaches the level of famine. al-Sharif’s reports were broadcast by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera until he was intentionally targeted, Aug. 10, in an Israeli air strike that hit the tent from which he and three other Al Jazeera journalists had been working in Gaza City.
All died, along with two freelance journalists, according to the Committee to Project Journalists.
Under the Geneva Conventions, journalists in war zones are civilians. Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime. The killing of these men should be investigated by a trusted international body and condemned by people of conscience everywhere.
We do not accept at face value Israel’s claim that al-Sharif was a terrorist operating in the guise of a journalist. Even before 2023, the Israeli military has made it a habit, the Committee to Project Journalists notes, to label journalists as terrorists and not provide “sufficient and reliable evidence.”
The Israel Defense Forces made no claim that the other five journalists killed Aug. 10 were associated with Hamas. Their deaths, along with that of al-Sharif, are thus war crimes that will make it harder for the world to know what this grinding, lopsided war is doing to civilians and families in Gaza.
“Israel is murdering the messengers,” Sara Qudah, regional director for the committee, said in a statement quoted by the group. “Israel wiped out an entire news crew. That’s murder. Plain and simple.”
This tiny enclave has lost an estimated 60,000 people since the conflict began, nearly one-third of them under the age of 18. That is 2.7% of its population before the war – the equivalent, on a percentage basis, of losing 9.18 million people in the U.S.
In less than two years, the fighting in Gaza has proven to be the single deadliest conflict for journalists in all wars of modern times, according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University. The Committee to Project Journalists says that since the war began, 192 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, 184 of them Palestinians.
al-Sharif knew Israel would try to silence him. In a statement to the Committee to Protect Journalists last month, he said the coverage he and others were providing damaged Israel’s reputation. “They accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally.” A week ago, Israel killed him. The world must condemn the Aug. 10 attack for what it is – a blatant war crime no modern nation should try to explain away.
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