Journalist Tamer Mekdad, family members killed in Israeli airstrike on their home in Gaza
Another Palestinian journalist has been killed in an Israeli attack on northern Gaza, with local authorities reporting that the overall death toll of journalists has now reached 213 since October 2023, when Israel’s genocidal war against the besieged coastal territory began.
Gaza’s government media office identified the slain journalist as Tamer Mekdad.
Mekdad was killed alongside a number of his family members, including his little daughter, in the strike that targeted his house at the Tel al-Zaatar neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the media office said.
Mekdad’s death comes a few days after Gaza photojournalist Fatima Hassouna was killed on April 16, along with 10 members of her close family, in the bombing of their family home located in the al-Touffah neighborhood, in the north of Gaza.
A multimedia graduate from the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, Hassouna had been documenting, since the onset of Gaza onslaught 18months ago, the daily life of the residents of the coastal sliver, to which Israel bans access to foreign journalists.
Palestinian Journalists’ Protection Center (PJPC) described the attack as a “crime” against journalists and a violation of international law.
The Israeli regime has killed another Palestinian journalist, as well as her husband and son, during an airstrike that targeted their home in southern Gaza.
Earlier this month, the Gaza media office appealed to the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union, and all press organizations worldwide to condemn systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza.
Hamas has issued a strong denunciation of the intentional targeting of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces, characterizing it as a blatant breach of international and humanitarian law.
The resistance group asserted that the murder of journalists is a component of the larger genocidal campaign conducted by Israeli forces against the Palestinian population in Gaza.
The movement highlighted that the deaths of over 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza — many of whom were killed alongside their families and children — due to Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and gunfire, demonstrate the occupying regime’s intentional and vengeful attempt to suppress the media and discourage journalists from revealing the realities of the situation in the area.
“These unprecedented crimes against journalists in the history of modern conflicts require urgent action,” Hamas said, calling on the international community, the United Nations, and its judicial bodies to intervene and hold the Israeli leadership accountable.
