Killing the Witness Does Not Erase the Truth
Journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul of Al Jazeera was killed by occupation forces today in a direct bombing that targeted his car. While filming in the Al-Shati refugee camp, Ismail and his colleague, cameraman Rami Al-Rifi, were beheaded by the criminal Israeli army, resulting in their martyrdom.
Ismail once said: "I am not ashamed to stand in front of the camera and say I am hungry. Many children ask me for something to eat, not knowing that I, too, cannot sleep at night because of hunger."
Ismail was the unwavering, truthful voice of northern Gaza for many months. While his wife, daughter, and family were relocated to the south, he remained by himself in the north to carry out his journalistic obligation of reporting the truth. Ismail went through ten months of fire, starvation, thirst, and pain in front of all of us. He was in need of comfort himself, so he raced from one bombing scene to another, covering slaughter after massacre and meeting and comforting individuals. But what comfort could lessen his pain and loss for his brother, who was killed in battle, and his father, who passed away unwell and was unable to say goodbye to him, or his longing and sorrow for his daughter Zeina, who was raised far away from him?
"The number of journalist martyrs has risen to 165 since the start of the genocide in Gaza with the martyrdom of colleagues Ismail Al-Ghoul and Rami Al-Rifi," the Government Media Office in Gaza declared after Al-Ghoul and Al-Rifi were killed. The office said: "We strongly condemn the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation, holding it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime." The statement continued: "We call on the international community, international organizations, and those related to journalistic work worldwide to deter the occupation, prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to stop the genocide and the killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists."
In its aggression against Gaza, Israel has targeted journalists on a large scale, whether they are working in the field wearing press vests, at their workplaces, in media tents erected near hospitals to aid in coverage, or with their families in their homes, which have been destroyed over their heads. Attacks on journalists and media professionals in times of conflict are condemned by UN Security Council Resolutions 2222 (2015) and 1738 (2006), which also make targeting journalists a war crime and a violation of international law. In addition, the necessity of safeguarding journalists as civilians carrying out their jobs in combat regions is emphasized in Article 79 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.