The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said today, Sunday, that the escalation of attacks against journalists during the year 2021 makes the occupation forces the number one enemy of the press during the year, especially in the city of Jerusalem, and during the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip.
During the aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Center documented the destruction of 23 press offices of local, regional and international institutions, including the headquarters of Al-Jazeera TV, in Al-Jalaa Tower, in the center of Gaza City.
The destroyed headquarters include (4) media companies that provide dozens of press institutions with media services and materials, and (3) journalists were injured in various ways, while covering the events of the aggression on Gaza, despite wearing press uniforms and distinctive signs.
The Center stressed that journalists and press and media organizations enjoy special protection, such as civilians in times of war, according to the rules of international humanitarian law, and that their presence in dangerous conflict areas may not be used as a pretext or justification for targeting them.
He also stressed that targeting journalists constitutes an organized crime to silence the press and prevent it from covering the crimes committed by the occupation forces against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory.
He considered that these practices are an extension of the grave violations that the occupation forces continue to perpetrate against Palestinian civilians, and evidence of the Israeli disregard for international humanitarian law, especially the First Annex Protocol to the Geneva Conventions.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights called on all international press organizations and institutions to continue to follow up on what journalists are exposed to in the occupied Palestinian territory, and to exert all efforts at the international level to ensure that pressure is exercised on the government of the occupying country to stop attacks on journalists and press institutions.
The Center also called on the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression to intervene immediately to stop the attacks of the occupation forces against Palestinian journalists and press institutions.
