A Palestinian journalist was martyred, 260 were injured, and 116 others were arrested as a result of the Israeli occupation’s attacks on them in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip during 2021.
“ The year 2021 has witnessed an escalation in the violations of the Israeli occupation against Palestinian journalists, as 832 violations were documented,” Palestinian media quoted the Committee to Support Palestinian Journalists as saying in its annual report issued on December 30.
The report said that last May registered the largest number of violations against journalists during the aggressions on the Gaza Strip, occupied Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.
The report pointed out that journalist Yousef Abu Hussein was killed as a result of an Israeli air strike on his house in the northern Gaza Strip, while 260 others were injured, 13 of them in the Gaza Strip, as a result of being targeted with bullets, sound bombs and poison gas, or being directly bombed to keep them away from covering the crimes of the occupation, despite the journalists wearing their clothes and press signs.
The report indicated that the occupation uses the method of arrest and detention, imposing exorbitant financial fines and strict restrictions on the movement of journalists, preventing them from covering, working or traveling, and others to obstruct the publication of what it is committing against the Palestinians.
The report stated that the occupation prevented the Palestine TV crew from working in the occupied city of Jerusalem, closed 62 media institutions in the West Bank, and destroyed 59 media institutions, media and artistic production companies, printing presses and publishing houses during the aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The report clarified that the occupation’s attacks on journalists are a clear violation of international law and Article 19 of the International Declaration of Human Rights, which calls for serious action by the international community to halt the occupation’s violations and provide protection for Palestinian journalists.
O. al-Mohammad