CPJ says the Israeli military “continues to act with complete impunity when it comes to the murder of journalists.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) denounced Israel's killing of four Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past week as the Israeli military intensifies its bombardment of the besieged territory.
The US-based watchdog said in a statement on Monday that the international community has failed to hold Israel accountable for its actions amid the rising number of deaths of journalists and civilians in Gaza.
“At least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed worldwide in 2024,” said CPJ Executive Director Jodie Ginsberg.
“Israel is responsible for two-thirds of those deaths and yet continues to act with complete impunity when it comes to the murder of journalists and its attacks on the media.”
The comments came a day after Israeli forces killed Ahmed al-Louh, a 39-year-old Palestinian journalist who worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera, in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
In the previous days, Israel also killed journalists Mohammed Balousha, Mohammed Jabr al-Qrinawi and Eman Shanti.
Hours before an Israeli airstrike killed Shanti along with her husband and children in Gaza City on Wednesday, the Palestinian journalist wrote on social media: “Is it possible that we are still alive until now?”
According to local health authorities, Israel has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza. It has also razed much of the enclave and imposed a suffocating blockade, causing deadly hunger throughout the territory.
United Nations experts and human rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Since foreign journalists are not allowed to work in Gaza, Palestinian journalists have been the only witnesses describing the atrocities to the outside world. And that, rights advocates argue, has put them in the crosshairs of an Israeli military that operates without regard for legal and ethical standards.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israeli forces have killed 196 Palestinian media workers in Gaza since the start of the war last year. CPJ, which has not included some media workers in its count, puts the death toll at 133.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera condemned the killing of al-Louh, accusing Israel of carrying out a “systematic murder of journalists in cold blood.”
Al-Louh was the last of several Al Jazeera-affiliated journalists killed by Israeli forces since the start of the war. He was killed on the first anniversary of the killing of another Al Jazeera cameraman, Samer Abudaqa, in an Israeli attack.
Earlier this year, Israel also killed the network's correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and his fellow cameraman Rami al-Rifi in a targeted strike.
The Israeli military has not denied attacking al-Louh and other Al Jazeera journalists. Instead, it has tried to use a familiar excuse to justify their murder: accusing them, without evidence, of being members of Palestinian armed groups, which the network has vehemently denied.
On Sunday, the Israeli military claimed that al-Louh was a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, without providing evidence to support the accusations.
Israel had also said that al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas and then published an apparently fabricated document as alleged evidence, which claimed that al-Ghoul received a military rank from Hamas in 2007, when he would have been 10 years old.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Israel has alleged – largely without evidence – that its attacks on Palestinians are part of its campaign against Hamas.
The Israeli army has also bombed schools, hospitals and displacement camps, claiming it was targeting Hamas fighters.
