The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance condemns the continued targeted killing of media workers in Gaza and the baseless smearing of working journalists as "terrorists", following the deaths of five Al Jazeera staff over the weekend
Al Jazeera journalists Anas Al Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, and Moamen Aliwa were killed on Sunday when Israel bombed tent housing journalists in Gaza City, near Al-Shifa Hospital.
Shockingly, the Israeli military confirmed the targeted killing on social media, with a post to X accompanied by a target emoji.
The latest deaths come after Israel had conducted a long smear campaign of unsubstantiated allegations against Al Sharif and other journalists, labelling them "Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists", which the International Federation of Journalists has condemned.
As Al Jazeera has said, this was a "dangerous attempt to justify the targeting of journalists in the field".
Tragically, these warnings have now come to fruition.
The targeting of journalists is a blatant attack on press freedom, and it is also a war crime.
It must stop.
The ban preventing the world's media from accessing the region and providing unfettered coverage of the worsening humanitarian crisis must stop.
And the silencing of Palestinian journalists via a rising death toll approaching 200 since October 2023 must stop.
In his final words, Al Sharif said he never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is - without distortion or falsification.
His reports brought to the world the reality of the horrors being inflicted by the Israeli Government on the civilians in Gaza.
He asked the world to not forget Gaza and to not forget him.
MEAA stands up against attacks on press freedom around the world.
We condemn the targeted killing of the five Palestinian media workers and the killing of nearly 200 others. And we remember them.
