By Selen Valente Rasquinho
BRUSSELS (AA) – European Parliament member Manu Pineda said on Wednesday that Israel deliberately targets journalists in the Gaza Strip because "no criminal wants anyone to witness his crimes."
Pineda, a Spanish lawmaker from the communist United Left party, said at a press conference in Brussels in response to an Anadolu question about the significant number of journalists killed by Israel during the extensive bombardment of Gaza, that Israel is attempting to “whitewash its massacres in Gaza by killing journalists.”
In the case of Anadolu cameraman Montaser Al-Sawaf, he responded, "Israel, like any criminal, doesn’t want anyone to witness its crimes. They so far killed 65 journalists, which is a significant number," Pineda added.
He said Israel's forces have even killed the journalists' families.
By doing so, he said Israel aims to force journalists to stop doing their professional work.
He said Israel is taking advantage of the international community's silence, but that "we should press our governments to push Israel to comply with international law."
Montaser Al-Sawaf, an Anadolu freelance cameraman reporting from Gaza, was killed in Israeli airstrikes last week, following a week-long humanitarian pause between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Al-Sawaf, his brother Mervan, and other family members were killed during Israeli airstrikes in the Ed-Durc neighborhood of southern Gaza.
After being seriously injured in the bombing, Al-Sawaf had to wait for an ambulance for about 30 minutes. Al-Sawaf was eventually transported to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital by private vehicle, but there was no medical team present and he died.
He was laid to rest alongside his brother and other relatives in the city's al-Batsh cemetery.
Israel resumed its military offensive on the Palestinian territory on Dec.1 after the end of a weeklong humanitarian pause with Hamas.
At least 16,248 Palestinians have been killed and more than 43,616 others injured in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The Israeli death toll in the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, according to official figures.