Dozens of media, rights groups urge EU to suspend treaty, impose sanctions on Israel
Some 60 media and rights organizations have urged the European Union to suspend a cooperation accord with Israel and impose sanctions on the occupying Tel Aviv regime over its “massacring journalists” in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war on Gaza, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organizations are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible”, the groups said in a joint statement on Monday.
Since October 7 last year, Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip “has been the deadliest for journalists in decades”, the statement added.
“More than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since October 7. At least 30 of them were killed in the course of their work, three Lebanese journalists and an Israeli journalist have also been (killed) during the same period”, it added.
“The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, whether committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime”, the statement pointed out.
Among the signatories were the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The call came ahead of a meeting by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on August 29.
Israeli forces directly target a crew from Turkish public broadcaster TRT in Gaza
Journalists operating in the Palestinian territory are faced with increased dangers as they report on the conflict amidst Israeli ground assaults and airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and power outages.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.
Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.
So far during the military onslaught, the regime has killed at least 40,435 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents. Another 93,534 Palestinians have sustained injuries as well.
