Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor: The assassination of five journalists in Gaza paves the way for a major massacre
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The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor strongly condemned Israel’s assassination of five Al Jazeera crew members in the Gaza Strip, including correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqea. This targeting is part of a systematic policy to silence and obscure witnesses to the truth, especially after the Israeli Prime Minister’s attempt to whitewash his army’s crimes in a press conference held hours before the incident.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported in a press release early Monday morning that an Israeli drone targeted a journalists’ tent near Al-Shifa Medical Complex on the evening of Sunday, August 11, killing five Al Jazeera crew members in Gaza City: correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqea, and cameramen Ibrahim Daher, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Nofal. Other journalists were injured.
The Monitor stated that the crime occurred hours after a press conference by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who escalated his incitement against independent media outlets and attacked press coverage exposing his army’s crimes, threatening to proceed with his plan to impose complete control over Gaza.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor emphasized that this public provocative rhetoric was a direct signal to the occupying forces to silence voices conveying the truth to the world, a move quickly embodied in the horrific assassination of the journalists.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor noted that Israel’s claim of responsibility for the assassination of Anas al-Sharif reflects a dangerous level of disregard for international law and is a stark expression of the consequences of impunity resulting from the policy of support and silence practiced by the international community, which tolerates such crimes.
It also noted that the assassination of the journalists, particularly al-Sharif, came after a series of incitements and accusations against him, following the killing of his father by the occupying forces in a previous direct bombardment to pressure him to cease his journalistic coverage.
