IFJ AFRICA CALLS ISRAEL’S ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS WAR CRIMES, CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Mon 17 May 2021:

The Federation of African Journalists, the regional organization of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) affiliates in Africa, on Monday strongly condemned the Israeli armed forces’ attacks targeted against media workers and organizations in Palestine.

According to FAJ, citing the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), at least two journalists have been arrested while another 30 were assaulted in attacks by soldiers of the Israeli armed forces. On Friday, Israeli fighter jets flattened the building, which housed Al Jazeera and The Associated Press offices in Gaza.

“The attacks on the buildings housing news media organisations are unjustified and constitute war crimes. Besides the significant material losses occasioned to local and international media organizations by the unjustified attacks, a large number of journalists lost their workplaces and personal belongings, and were lucky to get away with their lives,” FAJ President Sadiq Ibrahim Ahmed said, as quoted in the statement.

The pan-African organization further stressed that it stood in full solidarity with PJS and all journalists working in Palestine.

“FAJ … calls for immediate accountability and for the perpetrators of war crimes and attacks on journalists not to go unpunished,” the statement read.

The current escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict started earlier this month when unrest began in East Jerusalem over an Israeli court’s decision to evict several Palestinian families from the area. The situation on the border between Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip has been deteriorating for the past week amid heavy rocket exchanges that have resulted in the death of nearly 200 Palestinians, including 58 children.

Israel has reported 10 people killed and 50 others seriously injured, while the Palestinian Red Crescent says that more than 1,300 Palestinians have been injured amid tensions with Israel.