LAST UPDATE | 13 Feb
BROADCASTER AL JAZEERA has condemned Israel after one of its reporters had his leg blown off, and another reporter was also injured, in a drone strike in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
The health ministry in Gaza said reporter Ismail Abu Omar and cameraman Ahmad Matar were hit in the strike from an Israeli warplane in the Moraj area.
The two journalists have been admitted to the European Hospital, on the southern edge of Khan Yunis city.
Abu Omar’s right leg was blown off in the drone strike, while doctors were trying to save the left one, Al Jazeera said quoting an emergency physician.
The Qatar-based network said the strike was a “fully-fledged crime which adds to Israel’s crime against journalists” and was aimed at preventing reporters covering the conflict.
“Targeting the reporter Ismail and cameraman Ahmad is a new episode in a series by the (Israeli) occupation deliberately targeting Al Jazeera crews,” the network said in a statement.
Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail Abu Omar and photojournalist Ahmad Matar were taken to the European Gaza Hospital.
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 13, 2024
Abu Omar has had his right leg amputated, as doctors are attempting to save his left leg.
🔴 LIVE updates: https://t.co/3FEdN1HZhl pic.twitter.com/vX2n1YF5AB
The World Health Organization said the European Hospital is “overwhelmed, overcrowded and undersupplied” with more than 20,000 people sheltering in the hospital.
Hamas’s government media office said it “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation army’s targeting of the Al Jazeera crew”.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike when contacted by AFP, saying only it would check the details of the incident.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths of at least 85 journalists and media workers – 78 of them Palestinian – since the conflict erupted on 7 October.
Elsewhere today, South Africa has urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to place more legal pressure on Israel to halt its threatened offensive against the densely crowded Gaza city of Rafah.
Pretoria has already made a complaint against Israel at the ICJ in The Hague, alleging that its assault on Gaza amounts to a breach of the Genocide Convention.
The court has yet to rule on the underlying issue, but on 26 January it ordered Israel to ensure in the interim that it takes action to protect Palestinian civilians from further harm and to allow in humanitarian aid.
Israel’s campaign has continued, however, and its forces are preparing an operation against Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have sought shelter from the bombardment.
For South Africa, this is enough to ask the ICJ to revisit its provisional measures and issue a sterner order.
It said it was “gravely concerned that the unprecedented military offensive against Rafah, as announced by the State of Israel, has already led to and will result in further large scale killing, harm and destruction.
“This would be in serious and irreparable breach both of the Genocide Convention and of the Court’s Order of 26 January 2024,” the South African presidency argued.
“South Africa trusts this matter will receive the necessary urgency in light of the daily death toll in Gaza.”
NEWS: on 12 February 2024, South Africa submitted an “urgent request for additional measures under Article 75 (1)” of the Rules of Court in connection with the “developing circumstances in Rafah” in the case #SouthAfrica v. #Israel before the #ICJ https://t.co/PttnjpfA9t pic.twitter.com/Vup8uIKP0o
— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) February 13, 2024
“The international community has been warning against the dangerous consequences of any ground invasion in Rafah. The Government of Israel cannot continue to ignore these calls,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement.
“Military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter in Gaza.”
Israel conducted a predawn raid in Rafah yesterday that killed around 100 people and freed two hostages, after rejecting Hamas’s terms for a truce last week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the overnight operation as “perfect”, while the Palestinian foreign ministry said the deaths of dozens of Gazans amounted to a “massacre”.
Today, US CIA director William Burns met Mossad chief David Barnea in Cairo for a new round of talks on a Qatari-brokered plan to temporarily halt fighting in exchange for Hamas freeing hostages.
The negotiations, which also involved Qatar’s prime minister and Egyptian officials, were “positive” and would continue for three more days, said Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, citing a senior Egyptian official.
Minister Simon Coveney has today accused Israel of “behaving like a rogue state” and “ignoring the International Court of Justice”.
Yesterday, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin warned that further bombardment of Rafah would constitute a war crime.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 28,473, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
With reporting by Mairead Maguire and © AFP 2024
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