The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called on international, Arab, and Palestinian organizations working in the female and human rights sectors to follow up and prosecute the Israeli occupation for its crimes against female journalists who are being targeted for their journalistic work through killings, detentions, persecutions, beatings, and assaults.
A report issued by the Freedoms Committee at the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate indicated that the Israeli occupation killed, up until Thursday six female journalists since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7.
On October 10th, Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp killed journalist Salam Mema, along with her husband Mohammed Abdel-Naser al-Masri and their three children, Hadi, Ali, And Sham. Mema worked at the Voice of Jerusalem Radio and was the head of the Women Journalists Committee at the Palestinian Media Assembly in Gaza.
Twenty-nine-year-old social media activist, Eman al-Aqili, who created her own YouTube channel, was kill
ed in an Israeli air raid on the city of Gaza on October 24th. Aqili graduated from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza with a degree in radio and television broadcasting.
Thirty-one-year-old Salma Mkhaimer, a freelance journalist, was killed alongside her infant child and two sisters, in an Israeli airstrike on her family home in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip on November 25. She graduated from the Islamic University in Gaza with a bachelor’s degree specializing in Arabic language, journalism, and media. She lived with her husband, Alaa Abu Shawer, in Amman and was visiting her family in Gaza.
On November 26th, journalist Doaa Sharaf and her one-and-a-half-year-old toddler were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted her home in Yarmouk neighborhood in Gaza City. She graduated from the Islamic University in Gaza and was a producer, and radio presenter of a program entitled ‘Colorful Evenings’ and a news program called Hatha al-Masaa (This Evening).
Journalist Alaa Taher al-Hassanat, 32, was killed afte
r the occupation jets shelled her family’s home in the al-Darraj neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. She worked for the Ultra Palestine News and Media and published a series of episodes entitled ‘Ring the Bell’ as part of her work for the Al-Majedat Media Network before she was killed alongside her sister and a large number of her family members.
Freelance Journalist and host of podcasts Ayat al-Khaddour, along with several family members including her grandmother and three brothers, were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted her house in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in digital media from Al-Quds Open University and had a degree from the Business and Technology Incubator (BTI) in the field of audio editing. She also wrote and managed numerous blogs.
Head of the Freedoms Committee at the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Mohammed al-Laham, said these journalists had promising careers in journalism but were targeted, alongside their families, by the Israeli occupatio
n for no fault of their own but simply for their journalistic work that contributed to exposing the ugly face of the occupation.
Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA