NEW YORK, (PIC)
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, has condemned the Israeli occupation army’s direct incitement against six Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
Albanese said in a statement on Thursday that Israel’s declaration that six Al-Jazeera journalists are members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad “sounds like a death sentence.”
“These six Palestinians are among the last journalists surviving Israel’s onslaught in Gaza,” the UN rapporteur added.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) claimed on Wednesday that the six journalists working for Al-Jazeera in Gaza Strip are “terrorists” affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The accused journalists are Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hussam Shabat, Ashraf Al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar, and Talal Al-Urouqi. Most of them have already been targeted and attacked by the IOF over the past months.
For its part, Al-Jazeera confirmed that the Israeli accusations are “fabricated” and “part of a broader pattern of hostility” against the channel, stressing that “these allegations represent a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in Gaza to hide the harsh reality of the brutal war going on in the besieged Strip.”
