The UN insisted Tuesday that Israel must not only investigate alleged unlawful killings in Gaza like the hospital strike that killed 20 people, including journalists, the previous day, but also ensure those probes yield results.
“There needs to be justice,” United Nations rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva, adding that the large number of media workers killed in the Gaza war “raises many, many questions about the targeting of journalists”.
His comments came after an Israeli strike on the Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis on Monday killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, sparking an international outcry.
Reuters, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera all issued statements mourning their slain contributors, while the Israeli military said it would investigate the incident.
“The Israeli authorities have, in the past, announced investigations in such killings,” Kheetan said.
“It’s of course the responsibility of Israel, as the occupying power, to investigate — but these investigations need to yield results,” he said.
“We haven’t seen results or accountability measures yet. We have yet to see the results of these investigations, and we call for accountability and justice.”
Kheetan said at least 247 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war was triggered by militant group Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“These journalists are the eyes and the ears of the whole world and they must be protected,” he said.
Asked if Monday’s attack could amount to a so-called “double-tap” strike, in which an initial strike is followed by a second hitting rescue workers and other civilians, Kheetan said this needed to be investigated.
“We can say that the Israeli military reportedly launched multiple air strikes on the Nasser Medical Complex, and there were two air strikes in a short period of time,” he said.
“We know that one of the five journalists appears to have been killed in the first air strike while three others, including the woman journalist, appear to have been killed in the second air strike,” he added, describing this as “a shock” and “unacceptable”.
“This incident and the killing of all civilians, including journalists, must be thoroughly and independently investigated, and justice must follow.”
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© Agence France-Presse
