A United Nationsbacked panel says Gaza
City and its environs and its environs
are now suffering from a famine with the
risk of starvation expanding to the rest
of the territory by the end of
September. I'm joined now uh by Dr.
Muhammad Muad, the managing editor of Al
Jazzer, the broadcast network that lost
one of their journalists in today's
strike. And Dr. Muad, uh thank you very
much indeed for coming on the program. I
know this has been a dreadful day for
everyone who works for Al Jazzer and of
course sadly by no means the only
dreadful day that you and your
colleagues have uh experienced. Uh what
can you tell us about the Alazer
journalist who was among the dead today
in Gaza City in Gaza?
>> Thanks Simon for having me. It's another
devastating day. We've just uh mourned
our two colleagues in North Gaza days
back and today we are losing another
one. It's Muhammad Sal, a very brave and
dedicated photojournalist who used to
work from South Gaza
is stationed there. So the the Muhammad
Salama and his colleagues uh in uh in
South Gaza they are uh they were mainly
stationed in South Gaza from the
beginning of the war uncovering the
atrocities bringing to the world the
eyewitness account and uh really uh been
the ears and eyes of uh of what's going
on in Saud.
This this is very devastating. Not uh
not only because this is not the first
time a journalist is killed in Gaza. Now
over 200 journalists, local journalists
in Gaza were killed in uh in uh in in
this war. Uh but but because Muhammad is
a young journalist who was almost
getting married in a couple of days and
he lost his life uh in in this uh in
this targeted killing by the IDF. uh the
fact that they were trying to rescue uh
their uh their colleagues uh who was
live streaming for Reuters uh from Al
Naser hospital and they were targeted
while they are rushing him to the
hospital is telling. I mean the fact
that local journalists are being
smeared, are being uh intimidated to
stop the coverage uh are being uh
targeted, killed uh is is telling. This
is a strategy, a pattern that we are
seeing from the Israeli government. They
are trying to silence the story. Uh the
the same time we are hearing about an
int intensified operation in an area. uh
you would see uh them targeting
journalists trying to silence the story
and the coverage from there.
>> Dr. Mouad, the Israeli government of
course, as you know, says it's not
trying to silence journalists. It says
it is conducting operations against
legitimate targets and in several cases
when in the past Al Jazzer uh reporters
and technical staff have been killed,
some of them have been accused by the
Israelis of playing a role in Hamas
itself. Your response to that?
>> Well, it is not only unfounded
allegations, but uh it's really uh as
ridiculous as it can get. I mean, you
kill someone, you investigate your
killing of someone, and then you come up
with the verdict and tell the world
about it. I mean, uh, how on earth this
is something logic? I mean the fact that
uh that the Israeli government is
killing journalists and then smear them
and even intimidate them first and then
killing them and then smear them and
then come
uh operatives for organizations and
stuff like that is something that no one
on earth would believe in. I mean uh
this time they choose not to say that
they have targeted
Hamas operative. this time they have
chosen to to apologize to say that they
regret but that's that's a pattern that
we are seeing now
>> that was Dr. Muhammad Muad the managing
editor of Al Jazzer Al Jazer the
broadcast network that lost one of their
journalists today in the strike on the
NASA hospital in southern Gaza that
claimed uh at least uh 20 lives five of
them journalists uh working for
international news organizations Dr.
Muhammad Muad, thanks very much indeed
for joining us on what I know must have
been a very difficult day for Al Jazer.
>> Let's speak to Jodi Ginsburg who's the
chief executive officer of the Committee
to Protect Journalists. Good afternoon
to you.
>> Good afternoon.
>> Um do you have any further information
about um how many journalists?
>> Well, we know of four, but we leave
believe a fifth may also have been
killed in this attack. What we
understand to have happened was that
there was a first strike that killed um
cameraman Husam al- Masri who is a
contractor for Reuters news agency. He
was killed in the first strike and then
there was a second strike shortly after
when other journalists um and aid
workers came to the scene of the first
strike.
>> Um I'm looking at what the IDF have
said. Um uh they say they carried out an
attack on the hospital. An investigation
had been ordered. It added that it does
not target journalists as such. Uh
however um they've also said that it had
targeted Anasal Sharif, a prominent
Alazer reporter, alleging he had served
as the head of a terrorist cell in
Hamas.
>> Well, simply not true that Israel
doesn't target journalists. Um we have
documented
at least 192 journalists killed since
the start of this war. These latest uh
killings would bring it to 197. At least
26 of those we believe to have been
deliberate targeted killings of
journalists. That means with the full
knowledge that those individuals were
journalists. Um and in none of those
cases has Israel produced credible
evidence that the individuals, some of
which it's accused of being terrorists,
were such. Um a reminder that
journalists are civilians. They must
never be targeted in war and to do so
would be a war crime.
>> Is um you'll know better than I. Is this
the first time that the IDF have
specifically said uh this particular
person who happens to be a journalist
was targeted uh because
we think um that he was involved with
Hamas. How many times has that happened?
>> That's happened a number of times uh
including with uh the journalist Ishmael
Arul um and others that we've seen that
several times during this war that it
has killed journalists and then accused
them of being members of Hamas but
provided no credible evidence. Of
course, two weeks ago, that attack that
killed Anasal Sharif, the Alazer
reporter, also killed five other
journalists. And Israel has yet to offer
any explanation for why it was
acceptable to kill those other
journalists whom it has not accused of
being terrorists. Um, has not said
anything about why those killings were
justified. Uh, and there's been no
investigation or no reporting from
Israel into that. Uh it's again said
today, I believe that it was targeting a
camera that it said was operated by
Hamas, but we know that there was a
camera being operated by the Reuters
cameraman who was killed in this first
Attack.