An Al Jazeera Arab cameraman was killed in a drone strike while covering the bombing of a school in southern Gaza.
Al Jazeera Media Network says it will refer the killing of cameraman Samer Abudaqa in Gaza to the International Criminal Court.
In a statement on Saturday, the Qatar-based network said it had ordered its legal team to “urgently” refer the case of what it called the “assassination” of Arab Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa to the Hague tribunal.
It was Abuda he was killed by a drone strike on Friday while reporting on a bombing of a school used as a shelter for displaced people in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
“Al Jazeera Media Network reiterates its condemnation and condemnation of the murder of its colleague Samer Abudaqa, who spent 19 years with the network reporting on the ongoing conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories,” the network’s statement said.
“In addition to the killing of Abudaqa in the Gaza Strip by Israeli occupation forces, the legal files will also include repeated attacks on and incitement cases against Network crews working and working in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Targeting journalists is a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.
The media network has announced that it has created a task force made up of its international legal team and international legal experts to present a case to the prosecution of the court.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Dahdouh – lost his wife, son, daughter and granddaughter in one Israel’s previous bombing – was injured in the same attack on Friday. Mexila hit him in the upper arm and managed to reach Nasser Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries.
But rescue teams could not immediately get to Abudaqa and elsewhere because Israeli forces needed permission to bulldoze through the rubble.
By the time rescuers arrived five hours after the attack, Abudaqa had bled to death.
The 45-year-old was killed in southern Gaza on Saturday, and dozens of people, including journalists, paid their respects.
“We are carrying this human message, we are carrying this noble message,” Dahdouh said in his eulogy. the mourners around him wept. “We will continue to fulfill our duty with professionalism and transparency.”
Al Jazeera previously presented one formal request ICC to investigate and prosecute the shooting of a veteran TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh In May 2022, while covering an Israeli military attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
The evidence provided in the petition, filed in December 2022, includes an extensive six-month investigation by the network, including witness accounts and videos.
The ICC has acknowledged that it has been received, but no further steps have been taken.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says the ongoing conflict in Gaza is the deadliest for journalists on record, with at least 64 journalists and media workers killed in 10 weeks of shelling of the enclave.
CPJ also called on international authorities to “conduct an independent investigation into the attack to hold the perpetrators accountable.”
