On October 7, 2023, the military wing of Hamas launched a barrage of missiles towards Israel from Gaza. Israel's retaliation was immediate and ferocious.
On Thursday, November 2, a tragic incident unfolded in Gaza involving Mohammad Abu Hattab, a correspondent for Palestine TV. Abu Hattab had been reporting live outside Nasser hospital, only to meet a devastating fate about 30 minutes later when he returned home — along with 11 members of his family who were also killed, according to his network and reports by news agency WAFA.
The Palestinian Authority (PA)-run television network attributed the attack to an Israeli airstrike, though the exact source of the explosion at the house remains unconfirmed. Dark clouds of war is upon us.
Numerous citizen journalists who engaged millions of viewers with their livestreams, presenting an unconventional angle on the evolving regional events, had also paid the ultimate price for doing their work. The distinctive perspective they provide in the conflict has now been extinguished.
Attack on journalists
The attack on journalists in Gaza and Israel is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Now, at least 36 journalists documenting war crimes have themselves fallen victim to that which they are documenting, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists’s (CPJ) preliminary investigations.
Up to 10,000 were killed since the war began on October 7—with more than 9,400 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank, and 1,400 deaths in Israel.
grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, such as:
• Willful killing, or causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
• Torture or inhumane treatment
• Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property
• Forcing a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power
• Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial
• Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer
• Taking hostages
• Directing attacks against civilians
• Directing attacks against humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers
• Killing a surrendered combatant
• Misusing a flag of truce, a flag or uniform of the enemy
• Settlement of occupied territory
• Deportation of inhabitants of occupied territory
• Using poison weapons
• Using civilians as shields• Using child soldiers
• Firing upon a Combat Medic with clear insignia.
The following acts as part of a non-international conflict:
• Murder, cruel or degrading treatment and torture
• Directing attacks against civilians, humanitarian workers or UN peacekeepers
The following acts as part of an international conflict:
• Taking hostages
• Summary execution
• Pillage
• Rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution or forced pregnancy
The court only has jurisdiction over these crimes when they are "part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes”.
Since the war began on October 7, at least 33 journalists and media workers have been killed and there have been at least 18 incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
On November 2, the Society for the Protection of Journalists (SPJ) called for protection of newsmen working in Gaza. The Society of Professional Journalists has expressed deep concern for the safety of journalists reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Journalists in Gaza face dangerous conditions as they try to cover the conflict amid disrupted communications, extensive power outages and airstrikes.
War crimes
Reporters Without Borders has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed against Palestinian journalists in Gaza on.
The organisations said it previously filed complaints regarding eight Palestinian journalists “who were killed in bombardments of civilian areas in Gaza” and an Israeli journalist who was killed on October 7 while covering an attack on his kibbutz by Hamas.
A petition has been signed by nearly 100 French journalists, demanding access to Gaza and for the protection of journalists covering the conflict.
Unprecedented attack
The nightmare started at predawn on Saturday, October 7, when a barrage of estimated 3,000 rockets descended upon Israel from Gaza.
The attack was unparalleled. Hamas entered Israel like flocks of Daesh. Infiltrators from the Gaza-based terror group Hamas, aided by operatives from the smaller Palestinian Islamic jihad faction, emerged from the shadows.
They killed innocent Israelis and foreigners including elderly in their homes. Children and women were maimed. Hundreds were kidnapped.
More shockingly, Palestinian militants were able to overrun 22 Israeli communities in the south, despite Israel’s border with Gaza being one of the most heavily fortified in the region, walled off with a high-tech barrier fence and guarded by military outposts.
In the October 7 attack’s aftermath, it left 1,400 men, women and children killed, including a number of foreign workers. Some women were allegedly raped. Then the Hamas terrorists took 240 hostages, for use as human shields or bargaining chips.
At the time Hamas slaughtered innocent civilians in Israel, there are hundreds of children, women and elderly people from Gaza being treated in Israeli hospitals.
Hamas has a history of using innocent people in Gaza as human shields. They hide in schools, hospitals, and in UNRWA areas to protect their operations and terrorist infrastructure. Israel left Gaza in 2005. Before the attack, there were tens of thousands of Palestinians entering from the West Bank every day for work.
At the humiliation of Israel, Hamas rejoiced. The party’s “victory”, however, was shortlived. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of war. Hamas not only left a trail of death and hostages in their wake in Israel — but also brought Israel’s wrath into Gaza.
Unparalleled attack
Israel’s retaliation was overwhelming. The relentless bombing of Gaza has virtually flattened the enclave, leaving a trail of wanton destruction, in a prolonged revenge attacks with little regard for human life.
What Israel unleashed on Gaza’s civilian population — many of whom themselves abhor Hamas — is a level of pain, devastation and collective punishment borne out of overwhelming retaliation.
The real battle, however, is yet to be waged — underground, in the so-called “Gaza Metro”. In this network of uncharted tunnels, Hamas has the advantage of knowledge of the terrain.
It's an unparalleled orgy of death unleashed by both sides. In the midst of catastrophy unleashed by extremists, it’s the civilians, children, the weak, the infirm who pay the ultimate price.
When fringe voices speak the loudest, when macabre acts grab headlines and hog our social feeds as if competing for “likes” or “hearts”, the world gets shaken to its core. As brutality intensifies, decency takes a back seat.
In the minds of extremists on both side, the whole of humanity must embrace their narrative, submit to their thirst for revenge, and take the rest of us into a downward spiral of mutually assured destruction.
Dark side of extremism
The gruesome attacks on both sides demonstrate the ugly face of extremism, which silences the voices of reason and the powerful force of tolerance.
Amid the swirling dust of hatred, the voices of moderation and humanity must be heard. Amid the clash of narratives and cries for vengeance, one can only hope that the irresistible force of the common good would emerge.
Until we all see the futility of death and destruction in this current war, and the dark extremism that engulfs certain individuals on all sides of this conflict could threaten the very survival of human civilisation in an endless cycle of drawing blood.
There’s only one route to take: respect for life, for the dignity of the human person. It starts with a humanitarian truce, a pushback against savagery.
Decency demands courage.
As it’s been said: The first to apologise is the bravest.The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest
