A prominent Israeli journalist has made incendiary remarks calling for the killing of all journalists in Gaza, following an airstrike on a hospital in Khan Younis that claimed the lives of several media workers.
The remarks came from Zvi Yehezkeli, a former Israeli intelligence officer who now fronts programming for the i24 news channel. Speaking on air, Yehezkeli claimed that reporters working in the besieged territory were not neutral observers but an extension of Hamas, operating from hospitals and feeding the world what he called “propaganda.” He concluded with a chilling line:
“If Israel has indeed decided to eliminate the journalists, then it’s better late than never.”
The comments followed what witnesses described as a “double-tap” strike — an initial missile followed by a second targeting those who rushed to help — on a Khan Younis hospital. Among the dead were journalists Mohammad Salama, Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmed Abu Aziz. Their deaths came just two weeks after another hospital, Gaza City’s Al-Shifa, was hit in similar circumstances, killing six more reporters.
According to UN figures cited in the Canary’s reporting, more than 240 Palestinian journalists have lost their lives since the beginning of the war — a scale of loss unseen in any recent conflict. Media organisations including Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Reuters, and the Associated Press have all lost staff to Israeli strikes.
Yehezkeli’s words have drawn condemnation from press freedom advocates who warn that calls to deliberately target journalists amount to incitement to war crimes. Under international humanitarian law, reporters are civilians entitled to protection, even when working in war zones.
Inside Israel, however, the space for dissent has narrowed sharply. Polling by the Accord Center indicates that a majority of Israelis — 62% — now believe there are no innocent people left in Gaza. Meanwhile, protesters demanding an end to the bombardment and the safe return of hostages face hostility at home.
The targeting of hospitals, schools, and shelters, combined with increasingly open calls to eliminate journalists, has raised alarm that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is entering a darker phase — one where the very act of bearing witness is treated as a threat to be destroyed. For many observers, the killing of reporters and the rhetoric that follows it are not simply collateral consequences of war but a deliberate attempt to silence Gaza’s story before it can be told.
@TNPP
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