DayofPal– Al-Jazeera photojournalist Ahmed Al-Louh was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a Civil Defense Center in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on Sunday evening, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
Al-Louh was the third journalist to be killed by the Israeli army within 48 hours in the Gaza Strip, raising the death toll of journalists to 196 since the onset of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
Within five days, four Palestinian journalists were killed in separate Israeli attacks amid the ongoing assault in Gaza, with media freedom organizations accusing Israel of committing “war crimes” and “massacre against journalists” there.
On December 14, 2024, the Israeli ongoing airstrikes had claimed the life of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Jaber Al-Qerainawi, who worked at Sanad News Agency, along with his wife, Maram Khamees Al-Qerainawi, and their three children: Jaber, Sidra, and Ayat. Israeli warplanes targeted their home in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.
On the same day, Palestinian journalist Mohammed Baalousha was killed by a bomb dropped from an Israeli quadcopter on Ahmed Yassin Street in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.
Baalousha, who worked for Al Mashhad television, had been shot by an Israeli sniper in January 2024. Despite his injury and the lack of medical care, he continued to report and cover the Israeli assaults.
On December 11, 2024, an Israeli airstrikes directly killed journalist Eman Al-Shanti, her husband and her three children after targeting their apartment in Al-Malash Tower in Sheikh Radwan, northwest Gaza City.
38-year-old Al-Shanti was a broadcaster at Voice of Al-Aqsa Radio. She was known for her program Asl Al-Qissa (The Root of the Story), which aired on social media platforms.
Hours before her death, she wrote on Facebook: “It is unbelievable that we are still alive? May Allah have mercy on the martyrs.”
Two separate reports from media freedom organizations have brought global attention to what they describe as a “massacre” of journalists in Gaza this year.
In its annual report released on Thursday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) revealed that the Israeli army was responsible for the killing of 18 journalists in 2023—16 in Gaza and two in Lebanon.
This staggering figure accounts for nearly a third of the 54 journalists killed worldwide. RSF labeled the toll as an “unprecedented massacre,” a grim milestone underscoring the dangers faced by reporters in conflict zones.
“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” the organisation said in its report, which covers data up to December 1, 2024.
On Tuesday, a separate report published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said that 104 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024, with more than half of them in Gaza.
The IFJ and RSF figures vary because they use different methodologies to calculate the tolls. RSF only records journalist deaths in its report if they have been “proven to be directly related to their professional activity”.
“The war in Gaza and Lebanon once again highlights the massacre suffered by 55 Palestinians, 6 Lebanese, and one Syrian media professionals, representing 60 percent of all journalists killed in 2024,” it said.
IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger described 2024 as “one of the worst years” for media professionals. He condemned the “massacre taking place in Palestine before the eyes of the entire world.”
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.
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