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The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the assassination of journalist Ahmed Abu Aisha by the Israeli occupation forces, targeting him in the garden of his home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. This assassination is an extension of the escalating pattern of killing journalists over the past 21 months, confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that the killing was deliberate and intentional, aimed at terrorizing and intimidating journalists and preventing them from conveying the truth to the world. This killing is an integral part of the genocide in the Gaza Strip.
According to information collected by the PCHR staff, at approximately 4:50 PM on Thursday, July 10, 2025, an Israeli drone targeted journalist Ahmed Salama Hashem Abu Aisha, 34, a journalist with Palestine Today News Agency and a PhD holder, with a missile while he was in the garden of his home located in the Al-Sawarha area, southwest of the Nuseirat refugee camp. This resulted in multiple shrapnel wounds to his back and lower extremities. He was subsequently transferred to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp and admitted to the intensive care unit. Less than an hour later, he was pronounced dead from his injuries. His brother, Mahmoud Salama Hashem Abu Aisha, 38, told a PCHR researcher:
“I was standing outside the gate of the house, and my brother, Ahmed, 34, a journalist with a PhD in literature and criticism, was sitting on a bed in the garden reading the Quran. Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard, and the area was filled with dust and smoke. I rushed inside the house to find my brother Ahmed lying on the ground, bleeding profusely. It turned out that he had been directly targeted by an Israeli drone, injuring his back and lower limbs. He was still breathing, so I immediately carried him, fearing he would be targeted again, and put him on a motorcycle (tuk-tuk). We drove him to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat refugee camp. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was transferred to the intensive care unit. At approximately 5:40 p.m. that same day, he was pronounced dead from his wounds.”
With the killing of journalist Abu Aisha, the number of journalists killed by the occupation forces since October 7, 2023, has risen to (229), including (14 female journalists), according to the Government Media Office. Among the dead were (42) journalists killed while performing their professional duties, according to documentation by Reporters Without Borders. Dozens of journalists were also killed as a result of targeting their homes. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate documented the bombing of (152) homes, killing (665) of journalists' families and relatives. Other journalists were killed during the indiscriminate bombing crimes throughout the ongoing war of extermination. Hundreds of other journalists were injured during the aggression in various circumstances. This is in addition to social media activists, a large number of whom the occupation has targeted, inciting against and threatening to kill if they do not remain silent. The occupation forces have also killed more than 150 academics, scientists, and elites with academic degrees as part of a seemingly deliberate policy to create a structural imbalance in Palestinian society.
The Center confirms that targeting journalists; It was intended to single out the victim and obscure the reporting of the genocide perpetrated by the occupation against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Therefore, we call on the international community to publicly condemn the targeting of journalists, pressure the occupying state to immediately cease targeting them, and work without delay to provide international protection for civilians, including journalists, in the Gaza Strip.
The Center also affirms that the deliberate and systematic killing of journalists is part of the ongoing crime of genocide in Gaza, a crime that falls under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute establishing the court. It also constitutes arbitrary deprivation of life, according to Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and its perpetrators must be held accountable.
The Center affirms that the continued failure of the international justice system to hold the occupation leaders accountable for their crimes has encouraged them to commit further violations and crimes against journalists and their families without deterrence.
In light of this, the Center calls on the international community to pressure the occupying state to immediately stop targeting journalists, to work without delay to provide international protection for civilians, including journalists, in the Gaza Strip, and to activate pressure tools on the occupying authorities to halt their crimes, comply with international law, and protect civilians.
The Center calls on international press bodies, including the International Federation of Journalists, to take urgent action to pressure the occupation to hold it accountable for the killing and targeting of journalists in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
It also calls on the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression to strengthen and intensify efforts to protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to investigate the crimes committed by the occupation against journalists and media outlets in the occupied Palestinian territory.