RSF files second complaint with ICC over ‘war crimes’ against journalists in Gaza

The Paris-based non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed a second complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for probable war crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip.

In the new complaint, RSF requests the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists who were killed in the besieged enclave from October 22 to December 15.

Journalists named in the complaint are

• Asem Al-Barsh, a journalist for Al Najah radio, was fatally shot by sniper fire

• Bilal Jadallah, a representative from the Palestinian Press House, was targeted by a direct missile attack while leaving his workplace.

• Montaser Al-Sawaf, a freelance cameraman, whose home was targeted twice by missile fire

• Roshdi Sarraj, director of Gaza’s Ain Media organisation, was killed by an air strike on his home

• Hassouna Salim, a journalist for Quds News agency, was killed by a missile after receiving death threats

• Sari Mansour, a photo-journalist for Quds News, who died in Israeli airstrikes

• Samer Abu Daqqa, an Al Jazeera correspondent, was reportedly killed by a drone-fired precision shot.

The “RSF has reasonable grounds to believe that the journalists named in this complaint were the victims of attacks amounting to war crimes,” it said.

“According to the information collected by RSF, these journalists may have been deliberately targeted as journalists. It is for this reason that RSF is describing these deaths as intentional homicides of civilians.”

On October 31, Reporters Without Borders submitted the first complaint regarding war crimes since October 7, to the ICC, related to the killing of seven other journalists.

The group has confirmed the deaths of 66 Palestinian journalists since the start of the Israeli assault on October 7.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, resulting in 20,57 deaths and 53,320 injured, with unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.