In the run-up to this week’s deadly attacks, stories linking Palestinian reporters to Hamas gained currency. What followed seemed inevitable
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hat is the role of journalism when Palestinian reporters are treated as criminals and left to die? Last October, I spoke with the journalist Hossam Shabat. He described families packing what little they had left in northern Gaza as Israel began implementing its “generals’ plan”. Six months later, Shabat was dead – killed by Israel, accused of being a Hamas operative.
Israel does not try to hide these killings. Instead, it often smears its victims in advance – branding journalists as “terrorists”, accusations that are rarely substantiated. These labels serve a clear cause: to strip reporters of their civilian status and make their killing appear morally acceptable. Journalists are not legitimate targets. Killing them is a war crime.
The latest round shook the world: five Al Jazeera journalists were assassinated in a press tent in Gaza City, among them Anas al-Sharif, whose face had become familiar to anyone following Gaza up close. Both the UN and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had warned that al-Sharif’s life was in danger. Weeks later, he was dead.
