GAZA — An Israeli strike targeting a café in Gaza City killed a Palestinian journalist on Monday, amid ongoing daily attacks on the Strip and on journalists, despite the so-called Trump ceasefire. Islam Qaneeta, who was also a father, is the second journalist killed by Israel in less than a week.
According to local sources, Islam Hisham Qaneeta was killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a café in Gaza City on Monday night.
Sources said Qaneeta was a father of a six-month-old girl and the only son in his family.
On Wednesday, another journalist, Mohammed Wishah, was also killed in an Israeli attack on a car he was travelling in on al-Rashid Street, the coastal road that runs west of Gaza City. The air strike caused the car to burst into flames.
Wishah was a correspondent in Gaza for Al Jazeera Mubasher.
Al Jazeera Media Network said his killing “constitutes a new and flagrant violation of all international laws and norms, and reflects a continued systematic policy of targeting journalists and silencing the voice of truth.”
It also “affirmed that his killing was not a random act but a deliberate and targeted crime intended to intimidate journalists and prevent them from carrying out their professional duties.”
The same day, Israel killed another two journalists in Lebanon.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the killing of three journalists in one day by Israel, adding the deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks on journalists — civilians under international humanitarian law — are apparent war crimes and warrant investigation.
Israel has been targeting journalists in the Gaza Strip since the start of its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.
The Gaza Government Media Office said at least 262 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since then.
The Office also slammed the “systematic targeting and assassination of Palestinian journalists” by Israel.
It called on the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union and media bodies worldwide to “condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media workers in the Gaza Strip.”
The Office appealed to the international community and relevant organisations to “stop these repeated attacks,” prosecute those responsible in international courts, and “exercise serious and effective pressure to stop the crime of genocide” and protect journalists in Gaza.
Israel has violated the ceasefire which took effect in October more than 2,070 times, killing hundreds and blocking the entry of much-needed aid.
Israeli forces have killed at least 757 Palestinians since the ceasefire, including over 300 children, women, and the elderly.
Over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began on October 7, 2023.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk on Friday condemned Israel’s recent violence in the Gaza Strip, saying that “the unrelenting pattern of killings” reflects Israel’s “sweeping impunity”.
“For the past 10 days, Palestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of their homes, shelters and tents of displaced families, on the streets, in vehicles, at a medical facility and a classroom,” Turk said.
CPJ has said that Israel’s Gaza assault is already the deadliest for journalists ever recorded, saying the killing of journalists in Gaza and Lebanon is “not incidental — it is part of a broader assault on press freedom. The international community must act now to stop it.”
C. QNN
