Al Jazeera journalists Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya have been killed in a focused strike on their automobile in Khan Younis.
The Israeli navy has seemingly walked again its justification for concentrating on a automobile in Gaza final week, killing two Al Jazeera journalists, United States broadcaster NBC reported.
Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, was killed in an Israeli missile strike on Sunday in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Journalist Mustafa Thuraya was additionally killed within the assault, whereas a 3rd passenger, journalist Hazem Rajab, was significantly injured.
On the time of the assault, the Israeli military stated it was concentrating on a “terrorist” within the automobile.
It confirmed in a press release {that a} navy plane “recognized and struck a terrorist who operated an plane that posed a menace to (Israeli) troops,” including that “we’re conscious of the experiences that through the strike, two different suspects who have been in the identical automobile because the terrorist have been additionally hit”.
Nevertheless, when requested if Israel had any proof {that a} so-called terrorist was current within the automobile, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari described the incident to NBC as “unlucky”, and stated that an investigation was persevering with to find out what occurred.
“Each journalist who dies, it’s unlucky,” Hagari informed NBC. “We perceive they have been placing a drone, utilizing a drone. And utilizing a drone in a warfare zone, it’s an issue. It seems just like the terrorists,” including that Hamas makes use of drones to gather intel on Israeli forces.
“We’ll examine this incident and we are going to present the information,” Hagari stated.
Calling for an unbiased investigation into the strike, the Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ) stated: “Israel first stated it lethally focused a automobile carrying journalists in Gaza as a result of there was a terrorist within the automobile. Now it says that the use by a journalist of a drone made it ‘seem like’ they have been terrorists.”
CPJ’s Center East and North Africa Programme Coordinator Sherif Mansour stated: “Focusing on of civilians is prohibited. Journalists use gear like cameras and drones for his or her work. It doesn’t make them terrorists and will definitely not make them targets.”
Al Jazeera correspondents stated that the automobile with the journalists was hit as they have been making an attempt to interview civilians displaced by earlier bombings.
The Al Jazeera Media Community strongly condemned the assault saying the “assassinations” of Dahdouh and Thuraya reaffirmed the necessity “to take rapid essential authorized measures towards the (Israeli) occupation forces to make sure that there isn’t any impunity”.
In October, Dahdouh’s mom, brother, sister and nephew have been killed in an Israeli air raid. His father Wael was injured in a drone assault final month, which killed Al Jazeera journalist and cameraman Samer Abudaqa.
Greater than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza because the present battle broke out on October 7. Extra journalists have been killed in three months of Israel’s warfare on Gaza than in all of World Warfare II or the Vietnam Warfare.
CPJ knowledge reveals that extra journalists have been killed within the first 10 weeks of the battle than have ever been killed in a single nation over a complete 12 months.