Al Jazeera, media rights group RSF condemn killing of journalist in Israeli strike on Gaza

DOHA – The Israeli military said on April 9 that an Al Jazeera journalist killed a day earlier in an Israeli strike in Gaza was a Hamas militant who had “operated under the guise of a journalist”.

On April 8, the Qatar-based broadcaster said in a statement that it strongly condemned “the heinous crime of targeting and killing Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Mohammed Wishah, following a strike on the vehicle in which he was travelling west of the Gaza Strip”.

The channel said the killing was “not a random act but a deliberate and targeted crime intended to intimidate journalists”, adding that it “holds Israeli occupation forces fully responsible”.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) echoed the condemnation, saying that Mr Wishah’s name joined “those of the more than 220 journalists killed in 2½ years by the Israeli forces in Gaza, at least 70 of whom were killed in the context of performing their duties”.

The Israeli military on April 9 said its forces had a day earlier “struck and eliminated” Mr Wishah, whom it described as “a key terrorist in Hamas’ rocket and weapons production headquarters, who had been planning terrorist attacks against IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers operating in the area”.

It said Mr Wishah had “operated under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist, exploiting this identity in order to advance terrorist activities against” IDF and the state of Israel.

Despite a ceasefire being in effect in Gaza since October, violence has continued in the Palestinian territory and both Israel and Hamas continue to accuse each other of truce violations.

‘Seek justice’

Al Jazeera listed Mr Wishah alongside 10 of its other journalists killed in Gaza since the Oct 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that triggered the Gaza war.

Among them were Mr Mohammad Salama, who was killed in August 2025, as well as four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers were killed in an Israeli air strike outside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City earlier that month, prompting widespread condemnation.

In its statement, Al Jazeera said it would pursue “all necessary legal action to prosecute those responsible for the killing of its correspondents and staff in Gaza, and to seek justice for them and for all fallen journalists”.

The Israeli military says it never deliberately attacks journalists. However, it has admitted to killing a number of press professionals it accused of being “terrorist” members of the armed wing of Hamas or other Palestinian groups.

Israel is not a signatory to the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which set out rules around the treatment of non-combatants during wartime in the wake of World War II.

That protocol includes Article 79, which states that journalists in war zones “shall be considered as civilians... provided that they take no action adversely affecting their status as civilians”.

Israel is a signatory to the original four conventions, the fourth of which provides wide-ranging protections for civilians who do not take part in hostilities. AFP