Zionist Entity Urged to Justify ’Targeting’ Journalists: Watchdog

Local Editor

The Zionist entity must provide an "immediate and detailed explanation" for its targeting of journalists and media buildings during last month's Gaza conflict, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Sunday. In a letter to the Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the watchdog said it was "gravely concerned that Israeli airstrikes targeted individual journalists and media facilities in the Gaza Strip between November 18 and 20." The New-York based CPJ noted that two cameramen for Hamas's Al-Aqsa television station and the director of the private Al-Quds Educational Radio were killed by the Zionist army during its eight-day military campaign to halt rocket fire from Gaza. At least three media buildings, including one housing AFP's Gaza office, were hit during the conflict. "Israeli officials have broadly asserted that the individuals and facilities had connections to terrorist activity but have disclosed no substantiation for these very serious allegations," the letter reads. "We request your government provide an immediate and detailed explanation for its actions," CPJ executive director Joel Simon wrote. Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev said the Zionist entity would reply to the CPJ's letter via its US ambassador. "There were a number of situations where terrorist operatives used journalists as human shields, in those cases we acted as surgically as humanly possible," he allegedly said. CPJ said all journalists "regardless of the perspective from which they report" were entitled to protection under international law. "The Israeli government does not have the right to selectively define who is and who is not a journalist based on national identity or media affiliation," the group wrote. River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!