Journalists have paid a bloody price to report the Gaza conflict, Wael Al-Dahdouh told international representatives in Geneva, Switzerland on 25 March 2024. 

“My wife, my children, my grandson and my relatives were killed in deliberate attacks”, said the veteran Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief, struggling to contain his emotions. “We journalists are not party to this conflict. We are only witnessing what is happening around us and reporting events in an attempt to inform the millions of people who have a right to know what is taking place.” Al-Dahdouh, who was speaking from Qatar, told the meeting that he expected that recovery from his injuries would take at least a year.

More than 100 diplomatic representatives crowded into United Nations meeting room XXVII to hear Palestinian journalists and their supporters describe the carnage in Gaza. The meeting, organised by the IFJ, the PJS and the League of Arab States attracted representatives of: Belgium, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Finland, Norway, Portugal, the EU, Australia and Italy, among the 70 missions that sent representatives. 

PJS president, Nasser Abu Baker, told the meeting that he would not rest until the killers of Gaza’s journalists have been brought to justice. 

"If you aggregate all the journalists killed since October – without counting those who have been seriously injured you will find that nearly ten per cent of the 1200 journals from Gaza have been targeted and obliterated. This is perhaps the biggest number of journalists killed in any war since Vietnam. We are ready to put our evidence to any court in the world and we are confident that we can prove how they have been targeted.”

UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Professor Francesca Albanese, described being shocked, but not surprised at the rising death toll among journalists in Gaza. “Over 100 journalists have been killed, many more have been injured, and the fabric of life in Gaza has been destroyed”

She called for each and every death to be investigated. “Killing journalists is a war crime that undermines the most basic human rights. Justice starts with the cessation of injustice,” she said.

Gazan journalist and IFJ safety trainer Sami Abu Salem gave the meeting a flavour of daily life for journalists in Rafah. Speaking by video link, he conducted a tour of the tented village in which he and his colleagues live, the air throbbing with generators, and essential goods transported by donkey cart. “There is a lack of food, a lack of water, and petrol costs $30 a litre,” he said. He showed the meeting the ‘fake’ flak jacket filled with foam that he wears to report for Palestine tv, because Israel prevents the delivery of real protective equipment to the enclave.

Closing the meeting, barrister Tatanya Eatwell from Doughty Street Chambers in London said: “Israel must introduce terms of engagement that clearly instruct its forces that the targeting of journalists is unacceptable and will be investigated, as well as committing to prompt, independent, transparent investigation of the deliberate killing of journalists”. 

She also called on other states to keep up pressure on the Media Freedom Coalition, the International Criminal Court and Israel itself to ensure that no further journalists lost their lives.

IFJ honorary treasurer. Jim Boumelha, who chaired the meeting said: “the level of interest in today’s meeting shows that the international community is waking up to what is happening in Gaza. We pledge to continue working with the PJS to relieve the suffering of journalists in Gaza and insist on the intervention of the international community to safeguard Gaza’s media workers.