Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has called for an independent and impartial investigation into the killing of six Palestinian journalists attacked by the Israeli army in Gaza. This was reported by UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric in a statement released by the organisation.

"These latest killings highlight the extreme risks that journalists continue to face while covering the ongoing conflict," Dujarric said. The spokesperson stressed that journalists "must be respected and protected, and must be enabled to do their work freely, free from fear and free from attack".

What happened

On the evening of 10 August, Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa – all journalists working for the Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera – were attacked by a drone in the tent where they were working alongside other colleagues at Al Shifa hospital. Other journalists were wounded in the attack, including freelancer Mohammed Al-Khaldi, who subsequently died from his injuries.

Israel claimed responsibility for the attack, asserting that the killed journalists had merely posed as reporters and that they actually constituted a "terrorist cell" with the aim of targeting Israeli civilians and military personnel.

According to the watchdog Euro-Med Monitor, the killing of the journalists came in the wake of a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he launched a fierce attack on independent media outlets for their coverage, which he accused of casting the IDF's operations in a negative light, before pledging to press ahead with the project to occupy Gaza City.

The latest six journalists killed in a tragic series

Adding the latest 6 reporters targeted, the number of journalists killed in Gaza exceeds 240 since the conflict began, at least according to figures published by Euro-Med Monitor, which are current as of 28 July. That is nearly five times the combined toll of the First and Second World Wars, as demonstrated by a study published in April by the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University (Rhode Island, United States).

The UN Secretary-General's statement is consistent with the principles of international law and UN Security Council resolutions 2222 of 2015 and 1738 of 2006, under which deliberately targeting journalists is considered a war crime. Article 79 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 further establishes the obligation to protect journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions in areas of armed conflict.

Al-Jazeera mourns its colleagues

Meanwhile, at Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, journalists gathered for a vigil to honour their colleagues killed by Israel and to reiterate that the accusations made by the Israeli state are entirely unfounded.