Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Refee were killed Wednesday in an Israeli strike in Gaza, becoming the 112th and 113th journalists, most of whom are Palestinian, to be killed in Gaza war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
This conflict period has been the deadliest for journalists since CPJ began collecting data in 1992.
“This is the second time an Al Jazeera journalist has been struck in a car,” CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg told CBS News.
“This raises very troubling questions about whether journalists are being deliberately targeted. When it appears that a specific building or car is targeted while others around it are left untouched, it gives reason to suspect deliberate targeting. Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted.”
The two journalists were reporting near the Gaza home of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader who was assassinated in Iran earlier on Wednesday.
CBS News inquired with the Israel Defense Forces whether their news team’s vehicle had been targeted and, if so, why, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
As of July 31, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that 108 Palestinian journalists, two Israeli journalists, and three Lebanese journalists have been killed in Gaza. Dozens more have been reported injured or arrested.
“Journalists have been paying the highest price — their lives — for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth,” said CPJ Programme Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna.
Israel has seldom allowed international journalists into Gaza since the war began, leaving local journalists to cover the conflict. These journalists have been living through and reporting on the fighting and the humanitarian crisis for months.
“This places a huge burden on local journalists, as they are not only reporting under difficult conditions but also constantly having to prove their trustworthiness to the outside world, unlike the situation with Ukrainian journalists covering the war in Ukraine,” Ginsberg told CBS News.
