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Gazan journalist warned to stop filming killed in airstrike

One of the few surviving photo journalists still in Gaza was warned last week to stop filming.

An Israeli army officer allegedly threatened the young man saying ‘they would come for him and his family,’ if he did not stop.

Gazan journalist warned to stop filming killed in airstrike

Hassan Hamad, aged 19, was providing video to a number of television networks including Al Jazeera. On Friday he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his home in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. His body was blown to bits and various body parts had to be re-assembled to complete the identification process. They were tossed into a plastic bag and a shoebox. His press uniform and helmet were among the ruins.

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“This is what remains of his body,” one of his colleagues shared in an Instagram post.

Hamad had spent the year since the October 7 attacks documenting the aftermath of those attacks, a harrowing year in which more than 41,000 people have been killed, tens of thousands more injured, most in an horrific way. It has been a boom year for the prosthetic limb industry, which is now expected to be given a new boost by the expansion of hostilities into Lebanon.

Palestinian journalist Maha Hussaini said just days before Hamad was killed, he had been threatened by an Israeli officer through a Whatsapp message and a number of phone calls, ordering him to stop filming in Gaza.

“‘Listen, If you continue spreading lies about Israel, we’ll come for you next and turn your family into …… This is your last warning’,” the Whatsapp message said, which Hussaini shared on X.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it has been able to confirm and document the death of 128 journalists. This number is the highest ever recorded in a single year since CPJ began documenting journalist killings, thirty-two years ago. All of the killings, except two, were carried out by Israeli forces.

“The killings, along with censorship, arrests, the continued ban on independent media access into Gaza, persistent internet shutdowns, the destruction of media outlets, and displacement of the Gaza media community, have severely restricted reporting on the war and hampered documentation, CPJ said in a statement on Friday.

Palestinian journalist, 19, killed in Israeli raid after receiving threats | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

The organization has also taken aim at Israel over its attempt to justify the killings by claiming some of those slain are terrorists or have links to terrorist organizations.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Israel to stop making unproven claims that journalists slain by its forces are terrorists or engaging in militant activity, and demands international, swift, and independent investigations into these killings,” the group said in a statement in August this year.

“Even before the start of the Israel-Gaza war, CPJ had documented Israel’s pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without producing credible evidence to substantiate their claims,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martnez de la Serna said in the statement. “Smear campaigns endanger journalists and erode public trust in the media. Israel must end this practice and allow independent international investigations into the journalists’ killings.”

“Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Israel has used questionable and sometimes contradictory evidence to label at least three journalists killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as members or suspected members of militant organizations. Before the war, CPJ’s 2023 “Deadly Pattern” report also detailed examples of five unsubstantiated claims of terrorism or militant activity against journalists killed by Israeli forces between 2004 and 2018,” the CPJ statement said.

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