UN: Israel's killing of journalist, photographer in Gaza is a war crime that requires investigation

A UN rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression on Tuesday condemned Israel's killing of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Rifi in the Gaza Strip last week, and called for the incident to be investigated as a war crime.

“I strongly condemn Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists in Gaza, which adds to the already horrific death toll of journalists and media workers in this war,” said Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, in a statement.

Khan stressed that international humanitarian law guarantees the protection of journalists as civilians, and that deliberately targeting them is a war crime, explaining that this protection is only lost if they directly participate in hostilities, which Israel has not provided material evidence of.

“Given Israel’s failure to respond to previous calls for accountability, I urge the International Criminal Court to move swiftly to investigate the killing of journalists in Gaza as a war crime, and call on the international community to urgently consider using international mechanisms to investigate crimes against journalists in Gaza,” she added.

An Israeli airstrike killed the journalist and photographer on July 31. The Israeli military claimed that "al-Ghoul was a member of Hamas and participated in the October 7 attack on Israel."

The army accused the journalist of involvement in recording and publishing attacks on Israeli forces. Al Jazeera Media Network rejected the accusations, describing them as “baseless allegations,” and explained that Al-Ghoul had worked for the network since November 2023, and that his only profession was journalism.