Journalists in the UK rallied Wednesday in central London in solidarity with colleagues in Gaza, in the wake of two Israeli military strikes earlier this week that killed five journalists.
Members of Britain’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) gathered outside the Downing Street office and residence of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, delivering a letter demanding accountability and stepped up UK action to protect media workers.
Attendees then held a vigil, reading aloud the names of more than 200 journalists that press watchdogs have counted as killed in Gaza since the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and subsequent Israeli military response.
Monday’s strikes in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis killed at least 20 people, including the five reporters who worked for Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and Reuters, among other outlets.
The Israeli military said Tuesday its forces were targeting a camera operated by Hamas in the assault, which has triggered a wave of international condemnation.
It is the latest military action by Israel that has killed journalists, leading to accusations that they are being deliberately targeted.
The NUJ announced earlier this week that its members would join sister unions around the world in what it called “48 hours of solidarity action in support of journalists working in Gaza”, which started Tuesday.
“We’re here to show solidarity, and to show that we are horrified as fellow journalists about what’s happening,” said Deborah Hobson, a freelance journalist and NUJ member who helped organise the vigil and letter delivered to Starmer.
She called his centre-left government’s response to the latest killings of journalists, as well as prior incidents, “extremely poor”.
“There’s nothing that says that the UK is horrified,” Hobson said.
“We have a prime minister who’s a human rights lawyer,” she added, referring to Starmer’s career prior to entering politics.
“We expect better from a Labor government in any case, because of its historical reputation in terms of justice, equality.”
The UK government has in recent months suspended arms export licences to Israel for use in Gaza, suspended free trade talks with Israel and sanctioned two far-right Israeli ministers in protest at Israel’s conduct of the war.
Last week, it was one of 27 countries to call on Israel to allow “immediate independent foreign media access” into Gaza.
Mike Holderness, a writer and editor, said he had turned out “to honour and remember our colleagues, as well as demanding the strongest measures of protection” for journalists still working in Gaza and elsewhere.
“The vigil is to honour the memory of those who’ve given their lives to trying to report the truth.”
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© Agence France-Presse
