“There is a real eradication of journalism in the Gaza Strip”, reacts the editorial director of Reporter sans Frontières

“At least 79 journalists” have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict on October 7, according to Reporter Without Borders.

“There is a real eradication of journalism in the Gaza Strip”reacts Anne Bocandé, editorial director at Reporter sans Frontières, Sunday January 7 on franceinfo, after the announcement by Hamas of the death of two journalists in an Israeli strike.

franceinfo. Do you have any information on the circumstances of the death of these two journalists? ?

Anne Bocandé. They are Moustafa Thuraya who was a freelance video journalist, collaborating in particular with AFP, Agence France-Presse, and Hamza Waël Dahdouh who was a journalist for the Al-Jazeera channel. What we know today, thanks to our correspondents who are in Gaza: the journalists were returning from reporting in Khan Younes, they were wearing their press clothing, they were killed in Rafah by an isolated Israeli strike on their car. Remember that Rafah is the place at the southern tip of the Palestinian territory to which civilians, including journalists, were ordered to evacuate by the Israeli army. So, they had to move from the north to the south of Gaza to be safer. However, since the end of the humanitarian truce, Israel has concentrated its operations in the south of the Gaza Strip. And it is in this context that these two journalists were killed. We can also specify that this is the second attack in less than a month against the media Al-Jazeera. The last one killed the journalist Samer Abou Daqa on December 16 and also injured Wael Dahdouh who is the father of this journalist killed today, Hamza.

Is this war in Gaza against Hamas particularly deadly for the press?

It’s a massacre, it’s a real tragedy. There would be at least 79 journalists, including the two today, who were killed in Gaza. We also presume that at least sixteen were killed in the line of duty or as a result of their duties. From the first week, we warned that we were already at the start of the deadliest conflict of the 21st century with the equivalent of one journalist killed per day. We see that the tragedy continues and that there is a real eradication of journalism in the Gaza Strip.

You use the word “eradication”, so for you, all this is really voluntary? Knowing that there are 70 Palestinian journalists or media personnel in the count.

In any case, when we talk about eradication and when we raise the issue of targeting, what we mean is that we cannot say that journalists are protected in the exercise of their functions, like international law. recommends it. They are not protected by the operations of the Israeli army. What we can also say is that in the notion of eradicating and stifling journalism, Israel has clearly stated that it cannot protect journalists. There has been a blockade which, since the start of the conflict, has prevented any access to journalists from the region, to international journalists. An impossibility for those who witness what is happening to go out if they wish, or regular power or Internet cuts which prevent journalists from doing their work, as soon as different parts of the territory are evacuated. Some areas of Gaza are no longer accessible to any information. So it is in this sense that, in fact, we are talking about a suffocation, an eradication of journalism in this area.

You say that journalists should be protected, that it is a question of international law: who should be supposed to protect them?

Israel in particular. And we call on international justice to investigate crimes against journalists and the non-protection of journalists in Gaza. We filed a first complaint in October, and a second complaint at the end of December to call on international justice to investigate crimes against journalists.