On Monday, "Reporters Without Borders" filed a new complaint with the International Criminal Court regarding "war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians," according to a statement from the non-governmental organization. The organization called on the ICC's prosecutor to "investigate crimes committed against at least nine Palestinian reporters between December 15, 2023, and May 20, 2024."
The organization indicated that "the Israeli army killed" more than a hundred journalists in the Gaza Strip. The new complaint references "eight new cases of Palestinian journalists killed and one reporter injured," all of whom were "performing their journalistic duties."
The NGO affirmed that it has "reasonable grounds to suspect that some of these journalists fell victim to intentional killings, while others were caught in deliberate attacks against civilians by the Israeli army." At the beginning of January, the ICC prosecutor stated that crimes against journalists are included in his investigation into war crimes in Gaza.
Antoine Bernard, a lawyer for the organization, stated that "those who kill journalists undermine the public's right to information, which is of even greater vitality in times of conflict." The Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, reported that at least 107 journalists and media workers have been killed during the war in the Gaza Strip.
The complaint from Reporters Without Borders specifically includes Qatari Al Jazeera journalist Hamza al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya, who were killed in a strike on their vehicle in the southern strip. The Israeli army confirmed at the time that the journalists "were operating drones posing an imminent threat to Israeli forces," describing them as "terrorist agents," accusations that their families and the station they worked for denied.
The war in Gaza erupted following an unprecedented attack by Hamas within Israeli territory on October 7, resulting in the death of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to a count by AFP based on official Israeli data. On that day, 252 individuals were taken hostage and transported to Gaza. Following a ceasefire in November that allowed for the release of about a hundred of them, there remain 121 hostages in the strip, 37 of whom have died, according to the Israeli army.
In response, Israel launched a comprehensive assault in the Palestinian territory, resulting in at least 35,984 deaths, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry affiliated with Hamas.
