‘Impunity encourages attacks on journalists’

Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera s Director in Gaza Wael Al Dahdouhhas urged international actors to take concrete, enforceable steps to hold Israel accountabl...

Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera’s Director in Gaza Wael Al-Dahdouh has urged international actors to take concrete, enforceable steps to hold Israel accountable for what he described as widespread crimes against journalists and civilians in Gaza.

Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of an international conference in Doha yesterday, Al-Dahdouh said the importance of the current international conference lies in transforming pressure and advocacy into “practical, serious and real” measures to prosecute those responsible.

“We have lost 254 journalists in Gaza — men and women — and others elsewhere. There are also hundreds more injured,” he said, citing the heavy human toll on media professionals. “Many families have been affected, offices have been struck. There are many war crimes that Israel should not be allowed to escape responsibility for.”

Al-Dahdouh warned that impunity would amount to a reward that encourages further attacks. “If Israel is not held to account, that will be seen as a green light to continue assassinating and targeting more journalists,” he said.

Despite the losses and destruction, he added, journalists in Gaza have continued their work: “The role of journalists remains ongoing despite the extermination. But we want this extermination against journalists and the people of Gaza to stop.”