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The Israeli army views media outlets affiliated with the resistance as legitimate military targets, according to an investigation by The
Guardian released on 25 June.

The investigation is part of what is called the Gaza project, led by
the France-based Forbidden Stories NGO, which has analyzed the killing
of journalists in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Israeli
war in October.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) places the number
of journalists killed in Gaza since the start of the war at a minimum
of 103. According to CPJ, 30 percent worked for media outlets
affiliated with Hamas.

The Guardian investigation identified at least 23 dead journalists
employed by the largest Hamas-linked outlet, the Al-Aqsa media
network.

When asked about the number of journalists belonging to the Al-Aqsa
network who have been killed, a senior Israeli army spokesman said
there is �no difference� between working for the outlet and being a
member of Hamas� armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.

Adil Haque, professor of law at the US Rutgers University, said, �It�s
a shocking statement � a complete misunderstanding or just a willful
disregard for international law.�

The Al-Aqsa network�s offices have been bombed by Israeli jets during
previous assaults on Gaza.

In 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an order
using broad legal powers to designate the network, which is also under
US sanctions, as a terrorist organization. The designation was made
under domestic Israeli law, which legal experts said was not a �blank
cheque� to kill journalists affiliated with the network.

Sources cited by The Guardian say Al-Aqsa�s offices were evacuated at
the start of the current war in Gaza due to the belief that they would
be targeted.

One Israeli source said there has been �a permissive approach to
targeting across� the army when it came to the war.

Another source familiar with legal advice given to the Israeli army
said journalists affiliated with Hamas exist within a �grey zone� and
that there is a �problematic view� in the military that �whenever
there�s someone getting a salary ultimately from Hamas,� they become legitimized as a target.

According to the CPJ, over 75 percent of all journalists who died in
the year 2023 were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Many of these journalists have had nothing to do with Hamas. Hamza
Dahdouh, son of renowned Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, was
killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip on 7 January.

Dahdouh was killed alongside another journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, as
they were reporting on the damage caused by an Israeli airstrike on a residential area between the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah.

Several journalists have also been killed in southern Lebanon while
covering Israeli bombardment there since the beginning of the war.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-army-legitimizes-murder-of-journalists-in-gaza-report

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