https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/CPJ-Special-Report-May-2023_Deadly-Pattern.pdf
Deadly Pattern
20 JOURNALISTS DIED BY ISRAELI MILITARY FIRE IN 22 YEARS.
NO ONE HAS BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
A special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes
press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without
fear of reprisal. In order to preserve our independence, CPJ does not accept any government grants
or support of any kind; our work is funded entirely by contributions from individuals, foundations,
and corporations.
CHAIR
Kathleen Caroll
VICE CHAIR
Jacob Weisberg
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PRESIDENT
Jodie Ginsberg
DIRECTORS
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Peter Lattman
Isaac Lee
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Geraldine Fabrikant Metz
Matt Murray
Julie Pace
Clarence Page
Norman Pearlstine
Lydia Polgreen
Ahmed Rashid
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Roger Widmann
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SENIOR ADVISERS
© 2023 Committee to Protect Journalists, New York. All rights reserved.
Cover: A mural of Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank
town of Jenin, is seen on a wall in Gaza City on May 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
5
About this report
The May 11, 2022, killing of Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh is part of a deadly, decadeslong pattern. Over 22 years, CPJ has documented at least 20 journalist killings by members of the Israel
Defense Forces. Despite numerous IDF probes, no one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths.
The impunity in these cases has severely undermined the freedom of the press, leaving the rights of journalists in
precarity.
A special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Published May 9, 2023
Orly Halpern is the reporter and analyst of this report. She is a Jerusalem-based investigative journalist and TV news
producer who has worked across the Middle East and Africa and has reported from conflict zones, including in Israel
and the Palestinian territories, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She has worked for global broadcasters and has written for
major international outlets including Time magazine, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy. She holds a bachelor’s
degree in international relations and in Middle East studies and Islam from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She
speaks English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
Naomi Zeveloff, CPJ’s features editor, edited this report. Prior to joining CPJ in 2020, Zeveloff reported for six years
from Israel and the Palestinian territories, first as The Forward’s Middle East correspondent and later as a freelancer
for outlets such as NPR, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. She was also previously The Forward’s deputy culture editor
in New York. Originally from Ogden, Utah, she began her career in journalism in the American West, reporting for
newsweeklies in Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, Denver, and Dallas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science
from Colorado College and a Master of Arts in political journalism from Columbia Journalism School.
Robert Mahoney, CPJ’s director of special projects, also edited this report. Mahoney is a journalist, author, and
fighter for press freedom who has been at the forefront of the struggle for press freedom, journalists’ safety, and the
right to report since joining the Committee to Protect Journalists in 2005. From 1978 to 2004, Mahoney worked with
the Reuters news agency in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He headed news bureaus in Jerusalem, West
Africa, and Germany, and also served as news editor for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East based in London. After
a stint as a freelancer and journalism trainer he joined CPJ, where he helped lead the organization and expanded its
reporting and advocacy, particularly around the intersection of technology and press freedom. He helped build an
Emergencies Response Team to address the growing safety needs of journalists. He became deputy executive director
in 2007 and executive director in 2022. He writes on the press and appears in print and media interviews as an expert
on media freedom and threats to journalists globally. In 2022 he co-authored with former CPJ Executive Director Joel
Simon The Infodemic: How Censorship and Lies Made the World Sicker and Less Free.
Samir Alsharif, a Jerusalem-based local journalist and production manager, provided additional reporting. Working
in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, he has supported foreign journalists from a variety of international outlets for more
than 12 years. He has overseen logistics, administration, and coordination efforts on multiple projects with National
Geographic magazine, and has worked with book authors and on various films.
Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, also provided additional reporting. He
is an Egyptian-American democracy and human rights activist. Before joining CPJ, he worked with Freedom House
in Washington, D.C., where he managed advocacy training for activists from the Middle East and North Africa. In
2010, Mansour co-founded the Egyptian Association for Change, a Washington-based nonprofit group that mobilizes
Egyptians in the U.S. to support democracy and human rights in Egypt. He has monitored Egyptian elections for the
Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies and has worked as a freelance journalist. In 2004, he was honored by the
Al-Kalema Center for Human Rights for his work in defending freedom of expression in Egypt. Mansour has authored
several articles and conducted research studies on civil society and the role of the new media and civil society in
achieving democracy. He was named one of the top 99 young foreign policy professionals in 2013 by the Diplomatic
Courier. He received a bachelor’s in education from Al-Azhar University in Cairo and a master’s in international
relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He speaks Arabic fluently.
Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man provided expert review and additional research. She is an international human rights
attorney with more than 15 years’ experience challenging Israeli military policies and practices on behalf of Palestinian
litigants in Israeli courts and international tribunals. From 2005 to 2017 she served as senior counsel at the Michael
Sfard Law Office and legal director of Yesh Din’s Security Forces Accountability Project, representing more than 500
victims of killing, injury, and other crimes committed by soldiers and border police in the West Bank, including east
Jerusalem. She is an adjunct professor of human rights and the rule of law at American University and is regularly
invited to lecture and comment on the application of international law to Israel’s occupation.
David Kortava fact-checked this report. Kortava is a journalist on the staff of The New Yorker. He has reported for
the magazine on a range of subjects, including Russia’s “filtration camps” in eastern Ukraine – a recent cover story
supported by the Pulitzer Center.
CONTENTS
Faces of journalists killed 8
Map 9
Introduction 10
Israel discounts evidence and witness claims 13
Israeli forces have failed to respect press insignia 15
Israeli officials respond by pushing false narratives 17
Journalists are accused of terrorism 18
Israel opens probes amid international pressure 19
Officials appear to clear soldiers while probes are ongoing 21
Inquiries are slow and not transparent 22
IDF killings undermine independent reporting 23
Families of journalists have little recourse inside Israel 25
A deadly reporting field for Palestinian journalists 26
How Israel probes journalist killings 28
Recommendations 30
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
Muhammad al-Bishawi
Basil Nabil Ibrahim Faraj
Nazih Darwazeh
Khaled Reyadh Hamad
Yaser Murtaja
Raffaele Ciriello
Hussam Salama
James Miller
Mohammed Nour al-Din al-Deiri
Ahmed Abu Hussein
Imad Abu Zahra
Mahmoud al-Kumi
Mohamed Abu Halima
Rami Rayan
Yousef Abu Hussein
Issam Tillawi
Hamid Shihab
Fadel Shana
Sameh al-Aryan
Shireen Abu Akleh
Photo credits: Raffaele Ciriello (Reuters/Hussein Hussein); Issam Tillawi (YouTube/Palestine TV); Nazih Darwazeh (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh); James Miller (AFP/
Pool); Fadel Shana (AFP/Mohammed Abed); Rami Rayan (YouTube/Palestine TV); Yaser Murtaja (Facebook/Yaser Murtaja); Ahmed Abu Hussein (YouTube/AJ+);
Yousef Abu Hussein (YouTube/Baraa Attieh); Shireen Abu Akleh (YouTube/Al-Jazeera); all others courtesy of journalists’ families
9
GAZA
STRIP
JORDAN
ISRAEL
WEST
BANK
GOLAN
HEIGHTS
SYRIA
LEBANON
EGYPT
Jerusalem
Tel Aviv
Ramallah
Hebron
Gaza City
Nablus
Jenin
Haifa
Nazareth
18 19
3
1 5 7
2 4
6
17
8
9 10
11
12
20
13
14
15
16
Data: CPJ; Open Street Map;
ESRI Imagery; Natural Earth GEOFF McGHEE FOR CPJ
- Muhammad al-Bishawi
- Raffaele Ciriello
- Imad Abu Zahra
- Issam Tillawi
- Nazih Darwazeh
- James Miller
- Mohamed Abu Halima
- Fadel Shana
- Basil Nabil Ibrahim Faraj
- Hussam Salama
- Mahmoud al-Kumi
- Hamid Shihab
- Khaled Reyadh Hamad
- Mohammed Nour al-Din al-Deiri
- Rami Rayan
- Sameh al-Aryan
- Yaser Murtaja
- Ahmed Abu Hussein
- Yousef Abu Hussein
- Shireen Abu Akleh
IDF killings of
journalists
2001-PRESENT
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
Deadly Pattern
20 JOURNALISTS DIED BY ISRAELI MILITARY FIRE IN 22 YEARS.
NO ONE HAS BEEN HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
On May 11, 2022, Palestinian American television
journalist Shireen Abu Akleh embarked on what
would be her final assignment. At 6:31 a.m., she walked
down a neighborhood road in the Israeli-occupied West
Bank city of Jenin. She was accompanied by two other
Palestinian journalists and her producer, Ali al-Samoudi.
The group wore protective vests with the word “PRESS”
in large white letters across their chests and backs. Ahead
they could see several Israeli military vehicles.
The journalists were there to report on the aftermath
of an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp after a
string of deadly attacks by Palestinians in Israel. Video
recorded by TikTok users and republished by The
Washington Post showed Abu Akleh, a veteran AlJazeera Arabic correspondent, and her colleagues on
the street. In the minutes before, the area was relatively
quiet as local residents milled about, save for the sound
of gunfire in the distance.
Suddenly, six shots rang out, one of them hitting alSamoudi in the shoulder. The journalists ducked for
cover and there was a second volley of fire. A bullet
hit Abu Akleh in the back of her head in the gap
between her helmet and her protective vest, killing
her instantly. Several independent investigations by
U.S. news outlets, including The New York Times,
The Washington Post, and The Associated Press,
as well as Netherlands-based research collective
Bellingcat, all came to the same conclusion: a member
of the Israel Defense Forces likely fired the shot. CNN
found evidence of a targeted attack. The Londonbased research group Forensic Architecture and the
Ramallah-based human rights organization Al-Haq
also found evidence that the Israeli army targeted Abu
Akleh and her journalist colleagues with the intention
to kill.
Five months after the killing, an IDF probe concluded
there was a “high possibility” that one of its soldiers
“accidentally” shot the journalist while firing on
Palestinian gunmen, but did not rule out the possibility
that she was shot by a Palestinian militant. To date, no
one has been held accountable.
The killing of Abu Akleh, one of the Arab world’s
most beloved and recognizable journalists, was not an
isolated event. Since 2001, CPJ has documented at least
20 journalist killings by the IDF. The vast majority –
18 – were Palestinian; two were European foreign
correspondents; there were no Israelis. No one has ever
been charged or held accountable for these deaths.
Ahead of the first anniversary of Abu Akleh’s death,
CPJ revisited these 20 cases and found a pattern
of Israeli response that appears designed to evade
responsibility. Israel has failed to fully investigate these
killings, launching deeper probes only when the victim
is foreign or has a high-profile employer. Even then,
inquiries drag on for months or years and end with
the exoneration of those who opened fire. The military
consistently says its troops feared for their safety or
came under attack and declines to revisit its rules of
engagement. In at least 13 cases, witness testimonies
and independent reports were discounted. Conflicts of
interest in the chain of command are overlooked. The
military’s probes are classified and the army makes no
evidence for its conclusions public. In some cases, Israel
labels journalists as terrorists, or appears not to have
looked into journalist killings at all. The result is always
the same – no one is held responsible.
Israel’s efforts to examine its soldiers’ actions,
particularly when it comes to Palestinian journalists
Israel’s army is
responsible for 80% of
journalist and media
worker killings in the
Palestinian territories in
CPJ’s database.
11
killed, amount to less of a serious inquiry than a “theater
of investigation,” said Hagai El-Ad, the executive
director of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
“They want to make it look credible. They go through
the motions, things take a lot of time, a lot of paperwork,
a lot of back and forth,” he told CPJ. “But the bottom line
after all this maneuvering is almost blanket impunity
for security forces when using lethal force against
Palestinians that is not justified.”
Israel’s army is responsible for 80% of journalist and
media worker killings in the Palestinian territories in
CPJ’s database. The other 20% – five cases – died due to
different causes. Two Palestinians were shot by gunmen
in Palestinian Presidential Guard uniforms in 2007; one
Palestinian was killed in what was likely an accidental
explosion at a Palestinian National Authority security post
in 2000. And in 2014, an Italian foreign correspondent
and his Palestinian translator died on assignment while
following a team of Palestinian engineers neutralizing
unexploded Israeli missiles when one detonated.
CPJ’s research spans some of the most violent and
repressive years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from
the start of the Palestinian uprising known as the Second
Intifada, in 2000, to repeated Israeli operations against
militants. All deaths took place in the West Bank, territory
under Israeli military occupation, or in Gaza, a coastal
strip under Israeli military blockade. No journalist was
killed within Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
Deaths are just one part of the story. Many journalists
have been injured, and in 2021 the military bombed
Gaza buildings that housed offices of more than a dozen
local and international media outlets, including The
Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.
Journalists are civilians under international law,
and as such militaries must take steps to safeguard
them during hostilities. Yet while international law
forbids the targeting of civilians, it also acknowledges
that such deaths cannot be fully avoided, and doesn’t
require armies to investigate themselves every time
they occur. Indeed, Israel never announced probes into
at least five – a full quarter – of the IDF killings in CPJ’s
database. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t situations
when investigations are appropriate and necessary to
see if someone made an unreasonable judgment related
to the use of force,” said Geoffrey Corn, a military law
expert at Texas Tech University and a fellow at the proIsrael nonprofit Jewish Institute for National Security
of America.
Israel’s current military investigative system was
born out of the 2010 Turkel Commission, a government
commission established in part to ensure Israel
was investigating its military actions in accordance
with international law. The commission was set up
amid concerns that Israeli officials could be arrested
abroad for alleged war crimes. In order to avoid the
International Criminal Court, which, under the ICC’s
principle of complementarity, can exercise jurisdiction
where national legal systems are unable or unwilling to
act, Israel needed to bolster its institutions to prove it
could handle such allegations at home.
An Israeli soldier fires a tear gas canister during clashes with Palestinians in Hebron, in the West Bank, on October 25, 2022. (Reuters/Mussa Qawasma)
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
he can’t do in civilian life for 17 years if he’s convicted.”
Corn told CPJ that launching a criminal investigation
into every killing, even when evidence of criminality is
“murky” or insufficient, could impact soldiers’ abilities
to do their jobs in the field. Soldiers will assume that
every civilian injury will subject them to investigation.
“Conversely, when the evidence credibly suggests a
violation of law or policy and you don’t do anything
about it, you are incentivizing other people to break the
rules,” he said.
Time and again after a journalist killing, Israel affirms
its commitment to the rights of journalists. “The IDF
sees great importance in preserving the freedom of the
press and the professional work of journalists,” the army
said in an emailed statement to CPJ.
Israeli officials often repeat the assertion that Israel
“does not target journalists.” But Israeli authorities
need not prove that a killing was intentional in order to
open a criminal case into the conduct of a soldier or the
soldier’s superiors. There are many other lesser crimes
in the country’s military law that could apply, including
the Israeli equivalent of involuntary manslaughter.
Israel has never put a soldier on trial for an intentional
or unintentional killing of a journalist.
“The state has obligations that it might or might
not be following, but I think also a democracy can
demand more than the legal minimum,” said Claire
Simmons, co-author of recent guidelines for states on
investigating violations of international law published
by the International Committee of the Red Cross and
the Geneva Academy. Citizens in democracies can send
a strong message to their governments, she said: “‘We
are demanding that you be accountable to the actions
that you are being involved in, and that you do a better
job of protecting lives in armed conflict.’”
So far, the lack of accountability has created a more
dangerous reporting environment for local and foreign
reporters alike. “Many reporters covering similar raids
and tensions – which have risen markedly since Shireen’s
killing – are afraid of being shot,” said Guillaume Lavallée,
chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Israel, in a
statement to CPJ. “If a reporter with an American passport
can be killed without legal consequence, journalists fear
a similar fate could easily await them in the future. That
feeling of vulnerability is particularly strong among our
Palestinian colleagues. Some of them fear that they might
even be targeted.”
CPJ sent multiple requests to the IDF’s press office
to interview military prosecutors and officials but
the military refused to meet with CPJ for an on-therecord interview.
Since 2014, the military has opened “fact-finding
assessments” into “exceptional incidents” in which the
army needs more information to determine “whether
there exists reasonable grounds for suspicion of a violation
of the law which would justify a criminal investigation,”
according to the IDF. Once the assessment is complete,
it is delivered to the Military Advocate General, who
decides whether to pursue a criminal track in the case.
The Israeli military has opened fact-finding assessments
into the killings of five journalists, including Abu Akleh,
since 2014. It also opened a fact-finding assessment into
a large-scale bombardment which killed three other
journalists during Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge
in Gaza. (Prior to 2014 it opened preliminary probes or
conducted very basic checks into other journalist deaths.)
Human rights groups, and Israel’s own state comptroller,
have raised concerns about the independence and slow
pace of these totally confidential assessments, which can
drag on for months or years, by which time witnesses’
memories fade, evidence may disappear or be destroyed,
and soldiers involved can coordinate testimonies. In
the nine years that this assessment system has been in
place, the Military Advocate General has never opened a
criminal probe into a journalist killing. (Israel did open
one military criminal investigation into the 2003 killing
of British journalist James Miller, but closed it without
putting the soldier on trial.) Israel has rebuffed claims that
its investigative systems are flawed; the IDF says Israel is a
“democratic country committed to the rule of law.”
Investigations into military activity are controversial
in Israel, where conscription is mandatory and soldiers
are broadly seen as the nation’s sons and daughters.
In 2017, when Israeli soldier Elor Azaria stood trial for
the extrajudicial killing of an incapacitated Palestinian
assailant, mass protests erupted. Azaria’s charge was
downgraded from murder to manslaughter and he was
released nine months into his reduced 14-month sentence.
Shlomo Zipori, a former chief defense attorney of the
Military Advocate General’s unit, who represents soldiers
in criminal cases, told CPJ that investigations must be
weighed against military objectives, as soldiers may
begin to overthink their moves in the field if they fear
being tried. “I represented a soldier who was still serving
in the army while under criminal investigation for killing
a Palestinian and injuring another,” he said. “Someone
threw a Molotov cocktail at him and he didn’t respond
because he was so traumatized by the interrogations he
went through in the hands of the military police and
he didn’t want to go through them again.” Zipori is also
concerned for soldiers’ futures. “If you convict him, you’ll
ruin his life,” he said. “There are more than 50 professions
13
at a Palestinian gunman.” The Associated Press noted that
the “only confirmed presence of Palestinian militants was
on the other side of the [Israeli military] convoy, some
300 meters… away, mostly separated from Abu Akleh by
buildings and walls. Israel says at least one militant was
between the convoy and the journalists, but it has not
provided any evidence or indicated the shooter’s location.”
Additional investigations by The Washington Post, CNN,
and research collective Bellingcat showed a lack of
militant activity in the area at the time of the shooting.
Abu Akleh’s story is a case study in how Israel often
discounts evidence reported in the news and
elsewhere. Early on in its probe, the IDF released initial
findings raising the possibility that a soldier may have
killed the journalist when responding to Palestinian
gunfire. But news organizations quickly poked holes in
this narrative.
The New York Times said it reviewed evidence
that “contradicted Israeli claims that, if a soldier had
mistakenly killed her, it was because he had been shooting
Israel discounts evidence and
witness claims
Photojournalists hold up posters of Italian photographer Raffaele Ciriello, who was killed by Israeli gunfire on March 13, 2002, during a commemorative event
the following week in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AFP/Atef Safadi)
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
was “no evidence and no knowledge of an [army] force
that fired in the direction of the photographer.”
In 2003, when Associated Press Television News
(APTN) journalist Nazih Darwazeh was killed filming
clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli troops,
The Associated Press commissioned an independent
investigation that “concluded that the fatal bullet could
only have come from the position where the Israeli
soldier was standing,” according to AP Vice President
John Daniszewski.
Daniszewski told CPJ in an email that Nigel Baker,
then the content director of APTN, flew to Israel and
presented the investigation to an Israeli officer, who
suggested that the IDF conduct its own probe, but “AP
never heard results of such an investigation or whether
one was undertaken at all.”
A 2003 Reporters Without Borders report found the
IDF did make some cursory attempts at looking into the
killing, but that other journalists at the scene were only
interviewed “informally.” One was summoned to meet
with an army official seemingly in order to calm tensions.
“AP was and is outraged by this shooting,”
Daniszewski said.
These investigations were all published months
before the IDF issued its final statement. And while the
army claimed that it reviewed “materials from foreign
media organizations,” it appeared to totally discount
those findings. According to the military, there was a
“high possibility” Abu Akleh was “accidentally hit by
IDF gunfire fired toward suspects identified as armed
Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire in which
life-threatening, widespread and indiscriminate shots
were fired toward IDF soldiers.” The IDF did not rule out
the possibility that she was killed by a Palestinian gunman.
The IDF also said that “at no point was Ms. Shireen Abu
Akleh identified and at no point was there any intentional
gunfire carried out by IDF soldiers in a manner intended
to harm the journalist.” But weeks after the final IDF
statement, Forensic Architecture and Palestinian human
rights organization Al-Haq published a joint report
reconstructing the circumstances of the killing.
“According to both the digital and optical
reconstructions of the shooter’s vision, the journalists’
press vests would have been clearly visible throughout
the incident,” Forensic Architecture and Al-Haq found.
The IDF never responded publicly to the groups’ report,
which claimed that the military targeted the journalist.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel also questioned
why a soldier with what the IDF said was limited
visibility fired toward clearly identifiable journalists
without firing a warning shot. “If this is normal
operating procedure, how can the army fulfill its stated
pledge to protect journalists and respect freedom of the
press?” The association demanded Israel to publish the
full findings of its probe, which it never did.
Israel has discounted evidence in other high profile
cases. In 2002, Italian photojournalist Raffaele Ciriello,
who was on assignment for Corriere della Sera, stepped
out of a building in Ramallah to take a photograph of
a tank some 200 yards away and was shot six times.
“The barrage undoubtedly came from the road, where
there was not a soul, apart from the Israeli tank,”
said another journalist at the scene, Amedeo Ricucci,
in an article for Italian newspaper Vita. An Israeli
Government Press Office official told the Boston
Globe, “From that distance, I’m sure it looked like the
guy was getting into a firing position and was about to
shoot.” However, the IDF’s official position was that it
didn’t kill the journalist. The IDF later said that there
“When the evidence
credibly suggests a
violation of law or
policy and you don’t
do anything about it,
you are incentivizing
other people to break
the rules.”
Geoffrey Corn, military law expert at Texas Tech University
15
pierced in multiple places, killing him. “The markings on
Fadel Shana’s vehicle showed clearly and unambiguously
that he was a professional journalist doing his duty,”
said then-Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger,
who demanded an Israeli inquiry into the killing.
But Avichai Mandelblit, who was then Military
Advocate General, had a different interpretation
of Shana’s press insignia. He wrote to Reuters four
months later that Shana’s body armor was “common
to Palestinian terrorists” and that he had placed a
threatening “black object” – a camera – on a tripod.
These were two of the several reasons he told Reuters
that the soldier’s decision to open fire on Shana was
“sound.”
Like Abu Akleh, the majority of the 20 journalists
killed – at least 13 – were clearly identified as
members of the media or were inside vehicles with press
insignia at the time of their deaths. (All but one of the
20 journalists, who was home when his apartment was
bombed, was killed on assignment.) But not only did
journalists’ efforts to identify themselves fail to protect
them, at times officials have cast suspicion on journalists
because of their apparel.
In April 2008, Reuters camera operator Fadel Shana,
for example, was wearing blue body armor marked
“PRESS” and was standing next to a vehicle with the
words “TV” and “PRESS” when a tank fired a dartscattering shell above his head. His chest and legs were
Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja, mortally wounded by the Israeli military, is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops at border fence protests in the
southern Gaza Strip on April 6, 2018. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
Israeli forces have failed to respect
press insignia
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
Shana’s brother, Mohammed Shana, told CPJ that
he never received any answers, or any sort of apology,
from the Israeli military. “They shot him because
they didn’t want him to cover what was happening in
that area.” A Reuters spokesperson told CPJ that the
company remains “deeply saddened by the loss of our
colleague Fadel Shana.”
Ten years after Shana’s death, in April 2018, thenIsraeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman was even
more explicit with his attempted justification for an IDF
sniper’s shooting of Gaza filmmaker Yaser Murtaja, who
wore a helmet and a vest marked “PRESS.” “We have seen
dozens of cases of Hamas activists [who] were disguised
as medics and journalists,” said Liberman, referring to
calls for investigation as a “march of folly,” according to
The Jerusalem Post.
Murtaja was covering the Great March of Return, a
monthslong protest in which Palestinian demonstrators –
some of whom hurled Molotov cocktails, rocks, and
burning tires at Israeli troops – demanded to return to
their historic homelands inside Israel and the lifting of
Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed hundreds
of Palestinians, including Murtaja and photojournalist
Ahmed Abu Hussein, also in a press vest. Dozens of
journalists were injured, leading a 2019 U.N. inquiry to
find “reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers
shot journalists intentionally.”
“It was very obvious we were being targeted,” said
Yasser Qudih, a freelance photojournalist in Gaza, who
suffered life-threatening injuries after an Israeli sniper
shot him in the abdomen while he was covering the
Great March of Return in a press vest. Qudih believes
his fellow reporters were diligent about wearing press
apparel – and that this may have undermined their
safety. “There was a large number of journalists and
the Israeli government and Israeli army were trying to
keep them away,” he said. “The Israeli army was directly
targeting the journalists’ locations.”
A 2019 U.N. inquiry
found “reasonable
grounds to believe
that Israeli snipers
shot journalists
intentionally.”
17
day. Liberty commands the IDF’s Oz Brigade, which
includes the elite Duvdevan unit. The Israeli army
identified that unit, known for its undercover work in
the Palestinian territories, as a possible source of the fire
that killed Abu Akleh, according to Haaretz.
In the case of Murtaja, the photographer killed by
Israeli fire in 2018, one Israeli official spent weeks trying to
discredit the journalist. Then-Defense Minister Liberman
called Murtaja “a member of the military arm of Hamas
who holds a rank parallel to that of captain, who was active
in Hamas for many years” – a claim repeated on Twitter
by two spokespeople for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu. But Liberman never provided evidence and
The Washington Post revealed that Murtaja had been
vetted by the U.S. government to receive a U.S. Agency
for International Development grant to support his
production company, Ain Media. Liberman also claimed
that Murtaja had used a drone over Israeli soldiers when
a video showed him with a handheld camera stabilizer.
(The Israeli army told Raf Sanchez, then a reporter for
British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, that it had no
knowledge of Murtaja working for Hamas.)
I
mmediately after a journalist is killed by security forces,
Israeli officials often push out a counternarrative to
media reporting. In Abu Akleh’s case, officials began to
blame the other side even as news reports cited witnesses
and the Palestinian health ministry saying she was
killed by Israeli troops. “Palestinian terrorists, firing
indiscriminately, are likely to have hit” Abu Akleh, the
Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted hours after her killing,
along with a video of militants that Israeli human rights
group B’Tselem found was taken improbably far from the
scene of Abu Akleh’s death. Israeli military spokesperson
Ran Kochav told Israel’s Army Radio that Abu Akleh
“likely” died by Palestinian fire. He seemed to implicate the
journalists in the violence: “They’re armed with cameras,
if you’ll permit me to say so,” he said on the radio, before
adding that the journalists were “just doing their work.”
By the evening, Israeli officials began to walk back these
statements, with then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz
promising that Israel would transparently investigate
her death. Yet the body tasked with the preliminary
probe was overseen by Meni Liberty, a member of the
chain of command of the unit operating in Jenin that
Israeli officials respond by pushing
false narratives
A colleague reacts next to the dead body of Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by an Israeli soldier on May 11, 2022.
(Al-Jazeera handout via Reuters)
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
provided no evidence, saying that “in light of the military
use made of the vehicle for the purposes of transporting
weaponry, the marking of the vehicle did not alter the
lawfulness of the strike.”
Shihab’s brother, Ahmed Shihab, told CPJ this year
that the journalist had “no relationship to any Palestinian
parties.” He said that the journalist was taking time off
to prepare for his wedding when Media 24 called him to
pitch in with coverage of Israel’s Operation Protective
Edge. After three days of work, he visited his parents for
just an hour during Ramadan; after he left the house, he
drove to a colleague’s home and was killed.
In yet another case, in 2004, the military told CPJ that
Mohamed Abu Halima, who was a student journalist for
a radio station at Nablus’ An-Najah National University,
had opened fire on Israeli forces, leading them to return
fire. But Abu Halima’s producer said that he was on the
phone with the journalist moments before he was shot
and that Abu Halima had been simply describing the
scene around him.
Murtaja isn’t the only journalist whom Israel
accused of militant activity. In one notable case,
the army killed journalists affiliated with a Hamas-run
outlet, but never explained why it considered them
legitimate military targets. The IDF said Hussam Salama
and Mahmoud al-Kumi, camera operators for Al-Aqsa
TV, were “Hamas operatives” but a Human Rights Watch
investigation found no proof that the two were militants,
noting that Hamas did not publish their names in its list
of fighters killed. After CPJ called for evidence to justify
the attack, the spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in
Washington, D.C., responded two months later with a
letter accusing Al-Aqsa TV of “glorifying death and
advocating violence and murder.” The letter did not say
why the two did not deserve the civilian protections
afforded to journalists regardless of their perspective.
In another case, the IDF said that Hamid Shihab, a
driver for the Gaza-based press agency Media 24, was
transporting weapons in a car marked “TV” when he
was killed in an IDF air strike in 2014. The IDF again
Journalists are accused of terrorism
Palestinian women and relatives of camera operator Mahmoud al-Kumi, who worked for Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV, mourn during his funeral in the Gaza Strip on
November 21, 2012. He was killed by an Israeli missile alongside another Al-Aqsa TV camera operator, Hussam Salama. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
19
of its soldiers and strained diplomatic tension with the
British government. In 2003, Miller was shot in the neck
by a soldier inside an armored personnel carrier in the
Gaza Strip, but in 2005 the army absolved its troops.
After a British inquest jury found in 2006 that Miller
had been murdered, then-British Attorney General Peter
Goldsmith wrote Israeli officials a letter, giving them a
deadline to initiate legal proceedings against the soldiers
involved, or they would be tried for war crimes in England,
Haaretz reported. In 2009, Israel paid approximately
1.5 million pounds (US$2.2 million) in compensation
to Miller’s family. After the Israeli payment, the British
The degree to which Israel investigates, or claims
to investigate, journalist killings appears to be
related to external pressure. Journalists with foreign
passports – like Abu Akleh, who had U.S. citizenship –
received a high degree of international attention before
the army began probes. Israeli officials appear less
likely to investigate the killings of local Palestinian
journalists, save for those with strong international
connections. But there’s a limit to what international
pressure can achieve.
In the case of British journalist James Miller, Israel
faced the threat of a British request for the extradition
Israel opens probes amid
international pressure
British documentary filmmaker James Miller is seen on May 1, 2003, the day before he was killed by the Israeli military in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AFP pool photo)
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
“This investigation was an unbelievable fuckup and
everywhere we looked it was a whitewash by the army,”
Michael Sfard, a lawyer for the Miller family in Israel,
told CPJ. “There was no intention whatsoever to get to
the bottom of what happened there. And only because
the victim had British nationality and strong journalistic
entities behind him, the Ministry of Defense went as far
as to meet with us, to talk with us, to negotiate with us.”
Ministry of Justice said it would not pursue legal claims
or extradition, according to Haaretz.
The Israeli military, which never admitted
responsibility in Miller’s death, initially claimed that its
troops returned fire after being fired upon with rocketpropelled grenades. In video of the incident, a shot is
fired, after which a member of Miller’s crew shouts,
“We are British journalists.” A second shot is fired,
and appears to hit Miller. The case was investigated by
the Israeli military police, but then-Military Advocate
General Mandelblit closed it after deciding there wasn’t
enough evidence to try the soldier. (The soldier was
also acquitted of improper use of weapons in a separate
disciplinary hearing.)
The army said the investigation was “unprecedented in
scope” and included ballistics tests, analysis of satellite
photographs, and polygraph tests for those involved.
However, an internal Israeli army report leaked to The
Observer revealed that evidence was tampered with,
army surveillance video tapes that may have filmed the
killing had disappeared, and that soldiers were overheard
“lying.” The report said officers assumed soldiers told
the truth, and then explained away inconsistencies in
their testimonies because “they were confused because
of the fighting.”
“The IDF sees
great importance
in preserving the
freedom of the press
and the professional
work of journalists.”
IDF statement to CPJ
21
determined the killing was “sound” in part because of
unrelated threats facing soldiers that day.
According to El-Ad of B’Tselem, a soldier’s professed
fears can be enough to sway military examiners.
“Generally speaking, many soldiers realize that all they
need to say is that they felt threatened and so they opened
fire,” he told CPJ. “And when a soldier says that then it’s
almost guaranteed to be the end of the story, case closed.”
In at least one case, Israeli officials launched a probe
with the explicit goal of exoneration. The IDF’s probe into
several 2018 Gaza deaths, including Murtaja’s, would “work
to back the troops,” an unnamed IDF officer told Israeli
daily Yedioth Ahronoth. “IDF officials stressed that the
panel was formed to help IDF soldiers avoid prosecution in
the International Criminal Court at The Hague and should
not be interpreted to mean that their actions were in some
way unwarranted,” the newspaper said.
Officials appear to clear soldiers
while probes are ongoing
I
sraeli officials, including those tasked with investigating
killings, often make public statements exonerating
soldiers before probes are complete. In Abu Akleh’s
case, Yair Lapid, a former journalist who was then
Israeli foreign minister, went on a press offensive,
writing in The Wall Street Journal that accusations
that Israel had targeted the journalist were “Palestinian
propaganda.” His op-ed ran nearly three months before
the IDF released a statement concluding no “suspicion
of a criminal offense.”
Similarly, three months before the army completed
its probe into the killing of Reuters’ Shana in 2008, an
IDF spokesperson said soldiers “acted according to their
orders.” “We can say for sure that the soldiers weren’t able
to detect that it was a member of the press. The IDF has
no intention of targeting press people,” the spokesperson
said. Then-Military Advocate General Mandelblit later
Palestinian journalists hold posters of Reuters camera operator Fadel Shana, who was killed after being shot by an Israeli tank on April 16, 2008, during a
demonstration in Gaza City asking the Israeli government to take responsibility for Shana’s death on August 21, 2008. (AFP/Mohammed Abed)
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
by the soldiers, Al Nahal said.
When CPJ asked the IDF for the results of its probes
into the deaths of Abu Hussein and Murtaja – which
occurred within weeks of each other – it received
identically worded answers that the journalists were
“allegedly present at the scene of violent riots” and “no
suspicion was found which would justify the opening
of a criminal investigation.”
CPJ asked the IDF for the full probes into the deaths
of Abu Hussein and Murtaja and other journalists on
CPJ’s list, but the IDF did not provide them. Nor did it
answer CPJ’s question about why the army keeps these
probes confidential.
In some cases, families never learn what happened
beyond what is reported in the press. Abu Hussein’s
mother, Raja Abu Hussein, said the Israeli army never
contacted her about its probe. “The typical answer the
Israeli army gives when it kills civilians is that the army
did nothing wrong,” she said, adding that she doesn’t
trust the army to investigate itself.
“I wish I could meet the guy who killed my son,” she
told CPJ. “I would ask him, ‘Why, why did you target
my son?’ I think he won’t have an answer. He is a
sniper, he kills.”
The Israeli military often takes months or years to
investigate killings and is slow to respond to groups
that petition for answers. The Gaza-based Palestinian
Centre for Human Rights asked the Israeli military to
investigate Murtaja’s death six days after he was killed,
according to Iyad Alami, head of PCHR’s legal unit. In
an email to CPJ, Alami said the army asked the group
for medical reports and eyewitness statements, which
the group provided. Nearly two years later, the army
responded asking for the names of witnesses who were
prepared to testify. PCHR facilitated those testimonies
and responded to other requests, but its efforts then
ran aground. In October 2021 it asked the army for the
results of its probe. It never heard back.
Another Gaza-based organization, Al Mezan Center
for Human Rights, filed a request for the army to
investigate photographer Abu Hussein’s killing the day
after he died from a gunshot wound, two weeks after
an Israeli soldier shot him in April 2018. Mervat Al
Nahal, the director of the group’s legal aid unit, told
CPJ that the military confirmed it received the request
but never asked to interview witnesses. Two years
later, the Israeli army informed the organization that
it closed the case because there was no criminal intent
Inquiries are slow and not transparent
Palestinian demonstrators are seen during the Great March of Return in Gaza on March 30, 2018. The Israeli military killed two journalists
during the protests, Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
23
“This is really affecting our coverage,” said Abu Sabra.
“We try to avoid places where there are clashes. We try
to stay close to ambulances and hospitals and be away
from the demonstrators. So, we are much farther away
from the event. People are using footage taken by locals
in the area and discovering the news in that way.”
Abu Akleh’s killing has also changed the calculus
for some foreign news organizations working with
local journalists. “Especially after what occurred with
Shireen we have taken a much more cautious approach,”
said a security adviser for an international news outlet.
“If we are dealing with a local national who is doing
the primary reporting, if we know of any operations
happening in the area we just don’t take chances with
these things anymore.” The adviser declined to be
IDF killings undermine
independent reporting
The IDF killings of journalists have heightened safety
concerns for Palestinian and foreign journalists.
Gaza journalist Qudih said that Murtaja’s 2018 killing
“created fear in the heart of us all,” as journalists’ families
begged them to stop their reporting on the Great March
of Return protests because of widespread sniper fire.
Those concerns escalated after Abu Akleh’s killing.
“I’m not a person who is scared, but I have a 5-year-old
daughter who has been telling me she doesn’t want me
to go to work so that I won’t be killed like Shireen was
in Jenin,” said Hafez Abu Sabra, a Palestinian reporter
for Jordan’s Roya TV. “Everyone is scared now especially
after what happened to Shireen. Before, they were
shooting stun grenades and rubber bullets at us. But
now, it’s live bullets and you can lose your life,” he said.
A Palestinian woman takes pictures at the scene where Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed reporting on an Israeli raid, in Jenin,
the West Bank, May 17, 2022. (Reuters/Raneen Sawafta)
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
named out of concern that the outlet’s journalists would
be denied entry to Israel and the Palestinian territories
in the future.
The adviser said that in recent years, his news
organization has recategorized Israel and the
Palestinian territories from a “moderate risk” location
to a “high risk” location due to harassment by security
forces as well as by settlers and other ultranationalist
Israelis that yielded a “very muted response from
authorities.” Crews on the ground must now follow
stricter communication and safety protocols. They also
avoid travel between Israeli and Palestinian areas at
night in part out of fears that Palestinians may mistake
them for settlers and attack them.
The security adviser pointed to recent access issues.
Palestinian journalists have been stopped at West Bank
checkpoints and told they cannot proceed to the site of
military operations “for your own protection.” Nidal
Shtayyeh, a Palestinian photographer for the Chinese news
agency Xinhua who was previously shot in the eye while
reporting, said these restrictions intensified after Abu
Akleh’s killing. “So, there’s no freedom of coverage.” The
lack of independent reporting works in the government’s
favor, said the security adviser. “They are the only one with
a narrative to say ‘this is what happened on the ground.’”
When Shtayyeh did manage to cover a military
operation in Jenin in October of last year, he told CPJ
that he and a colleague came under fire by Israeli forces
while they were filming from inside a building under
“I have a 5-year-old
daughter who has been
telling me she doesn’t
want me to go to work so
that I won’t be killed like
Shireen was in Jenin.”
Hafez Abu Sabra, a Palestinian reporter for Jordan’s Roya TV
construction. “We were stuck to the wall for half an
hour, terrified that we would be shot,” he said. Their
calls for help were broadcast on Palestinian media,
where Amira Hass, a veteran Israeli correspondent for
Haaretz, heard them. She told CPJ she called the army
spokesperson’s office and told a soldier on duty, “Act
quickly, because we don’t want another Shireen Abu
Akleh, do we?” Soon after, the journalists, who were not
injured, were allowed to leave the area.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and the police told
Haaretz of this incident that it was “not aware of any
accusations of fire being aimed at members of the
media.”
25
but eventually gave up because the cost was prohibitive.
He said the lack of justice has “opened the way for the
repetitive killing of journalists, and the biggest example
is the killing of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.”
Abu Akleh’s media outlet is looking beyond the
Israeli justice system. The Qatari-funded Al-Jazeera
Media Network submitted a formal request to the
International Criminal Court – which in 2015 said it
had jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories – late
last year asking it to investigate Abu Akleh’s killing
and prosecute those responsible for what the network
described as a “blatant murder.” The U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation is also investigating the
incident, but Israel has said it will not cooperate.
In a statement ahead of the one-year anniversary of
Abu Akleh’s death, the network called on journalists and
governments worldwide to act so that the “perpetrators
are held accountable and brought to justice, to ensure
that no other journalist pays the ultimate price for
merely carrying out their duty.”
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera has continued reporting on
the Israeli occupation without the correspondent who
defined the beat for a generation of TV viewers. In an
essay published in 2021, Abu Akleh wrote about the city
where she would die the following year, calling Jenin the
embodiment of the Palestinian spirit. Today, the site
of her death has become a shrine; the tree where she
collapsed is covered in photos of the reporter who once
walked the nearby streets, microphone in hand.
The family of one Palestinian journalist on CPJ’s list
filed a lawsuit in an Israeli court over the journalist’s
death, but the case yielded no results. Imad Abu Zahra,
a Palestinian freelance photographer who worked as a
fixer for the foreign press, was photographing an Israeli
armored personnel carrier that had hit an electrical pole
in the West Bank city of Jenin when Israeli tanks opened
fire, killing him and injuring a colleague in 2002.
“My son used to tell me that as a journalist he was
protected and no one would hurt him,” his mother
Hiyam Abu Zahra told CPJ. “But he lost his life with his
camera, not using a weapon, because he wanted to show
the people what was really happening.”
Abu Zahra’s family filed a tort claim in a Tel
Aviv magistrate court against the state of Israel for
compensation for the death. According to court
documents, Abu Zahra’s colleague testified that
Palestinians threw fruits and vegetables at the Israeli
soldiers before they fired on the journalist. But the judge
accepted the state’s version of events and said that the
soldiers were forced to “open fire in view of the danger
posed to their lives and safety” after a crowd allegedly
hurled stones, Molotov cocktails, and used small
firearms against them. The judge rejected the family’s
claim and in 2011 ordered the family to pay 20,000
shekels (about US$5,800 at the time) in court fees.
Sameh Darwazeh, the son of Associated Press
Television News’ Darwazeh, who was killed in 2003,
said his family attempted lawsuits in the Israeli system,
Families of journalists have little
recourse inside Israel
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
A deadly reporting field for Palestinian journalists
Palestinians make up 90% of the journalists and media workers killed by the IDF in CPJ’s database.
(The other 10% were foreign correspondents; no Israelis were killed.) Those figures are partly a
reflection of broader trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; over the last 15 years, 21 times more
Palestinians than Israelis have been killed, according to United Nations figures.
The figures also reflect dangers in the places where Palestinians are able to report. Palestinians
face extreme restrictions on movement. Palestinians cannot travel between Gaza – where Israel
controls the airspace, territorial waters, and most land crossings – and the occupied West Bank
without Israeli permission. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank also need Israeli permission to
enter Israel and east Jerusalem. Palestinians in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not
recognized internationally, have more freedom of movement; like other non-Gaza residents they still
need Israeli permits to enter Gaza. The Israeli Government Press Office, which coordinates between
the government and journalists, told CPJ it supports the applications of Palestinian journalists to
report inside Israel.
The result of these restrictions is that Palestinians journalists are largely confined to reporting
where they reside – often the sites of major violence. They are often early on the scene to cover Israeli
military operations in their towns and cities, serving as the first eyes and ears on events that quickly
become world news.
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian journalist Ahmed Abu Hussein, who died of wounds he sustained after being shot by the Israeli
military while covering a protest along the Gaza-Israel border fence, during his funeral in the northern Gaza Strip on April 26, 2018.
(Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
27
Israeli soldiers’ views on Palestinian journalists also undermine their safety, journalists on the
ground told CPJ. “They don’t consider Palestinian journalists as journalists, they consider us the
same as Palestinian demonstrators and they target us like they do demonstrators,” said Hafez Abu
Sabra, a Palestinian reporter with Jordan’s Roya TV.
This is in sharp contrast to the way the military treats Israeli reporters, who may coordinate with
the army to go to Palestinian cities in the West Bank, areas Israeli citizens normally cannot access.
“The army knows the handful of journalists who cover military operations and when to have them
tag along,” said Emanuel Fabian, a military correspondent with The Times of Israel. Israeli reporters,
like all Israeli citizens, are barred from entering Gaza.
Haaretz’s Amira Hass, who regularly files from Palestinian areas, says that most Israeli newspapers
don’t provide a full depiction of Palestinian life under Israeli restrictions, instead focusing on the
military angle. “The mainstream media in Israel does not cover the occupation, really,” she said.
In general, Palestinian newspapers also don’t provide in-depth coverage of Israeli life, but do cover
Israeli politics by translating the Hebrew press.
Foreign correspondents are the journalists tasked with spanning the divide. With Israeli
Government Press Office permission, they are able to report in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza –
and they face dangers in doing so. “We can basically go anywhere we want, and I think the ease
of access sometimes obscures the fact that this is a very dangerous place to work,” The Guardian’s
Jerusalem correspondent Bethan McKernan told CPJ. “It is unpredictable, and violence can break
out unexpectedly at any moment.”
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
How Israel probes journalist killings
I
srael’s procedure for examining military killings of civilians such as journalists is a black box.
There is no policy document describing the process in detail and the results of any probe are
confidential.
If an incident taking place during active combat raises the suspicion of a violation of international
law, the office of the army chief of staff opens a preliminary examination known as “a fact-finding
assessment.” The findings are passed on to the Military Advocate General who decides whether they
warrant the opening of a criminal investigation. Since the assessments began in 2014, Israel has
examined five journalist deaths and one large-scale bombardment that killed three journalists. Not
one of these assessments led to a criminal investigation.
Journalists take part in a protest against the killing of Palestinian journalist Yaser Murtaja in the southern Gaza Strip on April 8, 2018.
The Israeli military opened a probe into the journalist’s death, but did not hold anyone to account. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
29
The assessments were supposed to bring the military justice system into line with international
standards, but many Israeli and international human rights organizations dismiss them as cosmetic
changes to a system that is still designed to shield soldiers.
The assessments, which were intended to be rapid and efficient, can drag on for years, according
to Israeli human rights group Yesh Din and CPJ’s research. In the unusual event that an assessment
triggers a criminal investigation, investigators have to start from scratch and cannot use anything
uncovered during the assessment. This creates further delays, rights groups say, during which
witnesses’ memories fade and evidence may disappear.
Once a “fact-finding assessment” is done it goes to the office of the Military Advocate General, a
unit that human rights groups say is neither impartial nor independent. Yesh Din referenced the case
of journalist Yousef Abu Hussein of Hamas’ Voice of Al-Aqsa Radio, who was killed at his home in
Gaza in an IDF bombing in 2021. The Military Advocate General’s office “had a hand in approving
the policy that classified Abu-Hussein as a military target, provided clearance for the strike that
killed him, or helped draft the criteria for proportionality when innocent civilians are harmed in an
attack on a military target,” wrote Yesh Din. And yet the Military Advocate General was tasked with
deciding whether to open a criminal investigation into his killing – and in this case did not.
In an email to CPJ, the IDF said of Abu Hussein’s killing: “It was found that the strike targeted
a legitimate military target, was approved by the relevant officials, and was in accordance with the
principle of proportionality,” meaning the military claimed that the circumstances of the killing
comported with international law.
The Military Advocate General rarely opens criminal cases, or does so slowly. Yesh Din examined
Israel’s track record in the 2021 military operation that killed Abu Hussein, Operation Guardian of
the Walls. It found that as of one year later, the army had opened assessments into 84 incidents, but
only began a criminal investigation into one. As of that time, the majority of the assessments were
still ongoing.
When a criminal investigation is opened, it is conducted by the military police. For years, human
rights groups have criticized these investigations as relying on soldier testimonies without gathering
physical evidence or witness statements, or doing so long after the incident in question. Rights
groups have said that military units involved in the incident are tasked with identifying suspects and
witnesses, typically after debriefings in which accounts may have been coordinated and rehearsed.
“From Israel’s perspective, this isn’t about establishing accountability and protecting the rights of
victims – it’s the opposite,” said Hagai El-Ad, head of Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. “I’m not
expressing an opinion. B’Tselem has more inside information into the whitewashing of the killings
of Palestinians than anyone else. We’ve investigated hundreds of cases – and we’ve done that while
engaging directly with the Israeli authorities.”
However, B’Tselem is no longer cooperating with the Israeli army’s investigative system, saying
in 2016 that it “would no longer play a part in the pretense posed by the military law enforcement
system and will no longer refer complaints to it.”
Before the new mechanism came into place nine years ago, Israel opened preliminary probes or very
basic checks into at least seven journalist killings. Only one of these yielded a criminal investigation,
the 2003 death of British journalist James Miller. But his case was closed and authorities did not
bring criminal charges. In at least five cases of journalist killings documented by CPJ, Israel did not
announce any probe.
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
Recommendations
The pattern of journalist killings by the Israeli military constitutes a grave threat to press freedom, undermining
journalists’ ability to report the news freely and safely. CPJ calls on Israel, the United States, and the international
community to implement the following recommendations to protect journalists, end impunity in the cases of killed
journalists, and prevent future killings.
TO ISRAEL
- Open criminal investigations into the cases of three murdered journalists: Shireen Abu Akleh (2022), Ahmed Abu
Hussein (2018), and Yaser Murtaja (2018). - Guarantee swift, independent, transparent, and effective investigations into the potentially unlawful killings
of journalists, which constitute possible war crimes; make public fact-finding assessments or other preliminary
probes into all journalists killed or injured since 2001; and seek independent review of these probes for potential
criminal investigations. - Any and all credible investigations into attacks against journalists by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or Israel’s security
forces should follow international investigation standards, such as those set forth in the Manual on the Effective
Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary, and Summary Executions known as the “Minnesota
Protocol.” The protocol establishes that under international law, the duty to investigate a potentially unlawful
death entails an obligation that the investigation be prompt; effective and thorough; independent and impartial;
and transparent. - Allow human rights organizations, as well as U.N.-appointed investigators—including U.N. special rapporteurs
and the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory
and Israel—unrestricted access to Israel and the Palestinian territories to investigate suspected violations of
international law by all parties. Acknowledge and implement their recommendations to improve the ability of
journalists to report freely and safely. - Review and reform IDF rules of engagement to prevent the targeting of journalists in the future, in line with
the U.N.’s recommendation to stop the unwarranted use of lethal force. These revised directives should convey
to all security forces, publicly and privately, that the use of lethal force against journalists—who are civilians
performing their jobs—is prohibited, and make clear that forces must refrain from opening fire on individuals
with press insignia. - Fully cooperate with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into Abu Akleh’s killing.
- Cooperate with any International Criminal Court investigation resulting from recent legal submissions
alleging war crimes against journalists by Israel’s security forces and a failure to properly investigate killings
of media workers.
TO THE UNITED STATES - Provide an urgently needed comprehensive public update on the status of the FBI’s investigation into the killing of
Shireen Abu Akleh, who was an American citizen. The investigation was reportedly launched in November 2022
and there has been no public accounting as of May 2023. - Leverage the U.S. partnership with Israel to:
ɘ Secure Israel’s full cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh.
ɘ Press Israeli authorities to review and reform IDF rules of engagement to prevent further killings of journalists.
TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY - The U.N. Commission of Inquiry should continue to press Israel on its recommendation that the rules of engagement
be revised to stop the use of unwarranted lethal force. - Governments, particularly allies of Israel, should hold Israel accountable to its international obligations to protect
the safety of the press and for ending impunity for crimes against journalists in the Palestinian territories.
Governments must also urge Israel to fully cooperate with any international inquiries into the killing or targeting
of journalists by Israeli forces in the Palestinian territories. - The Media Freedom Coalition, a group of more than 50 member states that pledge to support media freedom,
should encourage Israel to end impunity in the killing of journalists and to revise IDF rules of engagement in order
to prevent further journalist deaths.
31
Deadly Pattern: 20 journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable.
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