Journalists say ethnic cleansing taking place in northern Gaza news void

Israel has stepped up systematic attack on journalists and media infrastructure since the start of its northern Gaza campaign in early October.

Israeli strikes killed at least five journalists and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began a smear campaign against six Al Jazeera journalists reporting on the north, where there are now almost no professional journalists left to document what they and several international institutions describe as an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Journalists interviewed by CPJ in late October and early November said the continued attacks on the media – along with the food shortages, continual displacement, and communications blackouts experienced by all Gazans – placed severe constraints on coverage of the impact of Israel’s offensive, which the Israeli military says is a bid to stop militant Hamas fighters from regrouping.

 “Israel is accused of adopting a ‘starve or leave’ policy to force Palestinians out of northern Gaza. It seems clear that the systematic attacks on the media and campaign to discredit those few journalists who remain is a deliberate tactic to prevent the world from seeing what Israel is doing there,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna, in New York. “Reporters are crucial in bearing witness during a war, without them, the world won’t be able to write history.”

Read more