UNESCO has strongly condemned the killing of six journalists in Palestine by an Israeli drone on Sunday.

UNESCO’s director-general, Audrey Azoulay, said this in a statement on Tuesday.

“I condemn the killing of journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Al-Khaldi and call for a thorough and transparent investigation, she said.

Five of the six worked for the influential Qatari-based media organisation, Al Jazeera.

Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh were on-air correspondents, while Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa worked as camera operators.

Mohammed Al-Khaldi was a freelance photojournalist.

They were reportedly killed by an Israeli attack on a tent used by media personnel at the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

The Israeli Defense Forces alleged that the 28-year-old al-Sharif was a serving Hamas operative.

Al Jazeera strongly denies this, describing the attack as an “assassination” and “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.”

The UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent expert on freedom of expression had on July 31 denounced an Israeli military spokesperson’s “repeated threats” and “unfounded accusations” against Al-Sharif.

The council had described the allegation as “a blatant attempt to endanger his life and silence his reporting” in Gaza.

Two special rapporteurs on Tuesday described the killings as “an attempt to silence reporting on the ongoing genocide and starvation campaign” in Gaza.

“It is outrageous that the Israeli army dares to first launch a campaign to smear Anas Al-Sharif as Hamas in order to discredit his reporting and then kill him and his colleagues for speaking the truth to the world,” they said.

The experts demanded an immediate investigation into the killings and full access to international media, which Israel currently bars from entering Gaza.

Special rapporteurs and other independent experts are appointed by and report regularly to the Human Rights Council.

They work in their individual capacity, are not UN staff, and receive no payment for their work.

The UNESCO chief stressed that targeting journalists reporting on conflicts is unacceptable and violates international law.

She also reiterated her call to respect UN Security Council Resolution 2222, which was unanimously adopted in 2015 to protect journalists, media professionals, and associated personnel in conflict situations.

UNESCO reports that since Oct. 2023, at least 62 journalists and media workers have been killed in the line of duty in Palestine.

This excludes deaths in circumstances unrelated to their work, while OHCHR reports that at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the same time frame.  

(NAN)