The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Israel to explain the killing of Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent Ismail Al Ghoul and camera operator Rami Al Refee in an Israeli airstrike west of Gaza City on Wednesday.
“CPJ is dismayed by the news that Al Jazeera TV reporter Ismail Al Ghoul and cameraman Rami Al Refee were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg in New York. “Journalists are civilians and should never be targeted. Israel must explain why two more Al Jazeera journalists have been killed in what appears to be a direct strike.”
Al Ghoul and Al Refee were covering the aftermath of the assassination of the senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, reporting from in front of Haniyeh’s home in Gaza an hour before they were killed. Al Jazeera said in its live coverage that Al Ghoul and Al Refee were leaving the scene after an Israeli order to evacuate the area when they were hit, and that it believes the journalists were deliberately targeted.
Al Ghoul was previously arrested by the IDF at Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. CPJ has documented the killing of at least seven journalists and media workers affiliated with Al Jazeera since the start of the Israel-Gaza war last October.
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Desk for comment on the strike but did not receive an immediate response.
(Editor’s note: The fourth paragraph of this report has been updated to correct the spelling of Al-Shifa.)