Guterres: Number of journalists killed in Gaza unseen in any conflict | UN officials call for protection of civilians, urge Israel to stop attacks on humanitarian workers

An Israeli airstrike killed Palestinian photojournalist Bilal Mohamed Rajab, the Gaza-based government media office reported on Friday, raising the death toll of Palestinian journalists killed in Israel’s war in Gaza to 183.

Throughout its 13-month ongoing war on the strip, Israel has killed 10 percent of Gaza’s journalists, Palestinian Journalists Syndicate head Nasser Abu Bakr said during a seminar held in Ramallah’s Birzeit University on Saturday, calling for the implementation of resolution 2222 on the protection of journalists.

Echoing the same issue, UN Secretary General António Guterres said in Geneva on Friday that the Israeli military’s targeting of journalists in Gaza is unacceptable, calling for their protection and saying, “Journalists in Gaza have been killed at a level unseen in any conflict in modern times.” He also criticized Israel’s ban on international journalists’ entry into Gaza. “The ongoing ban preventing international journalists from Gaza suffocates the truth even further.”

Further on Israel’s targeting of specific sectors in the strip, the heads of 15 UN and humanitarian organizations called on all warring parties in Gaza to protect civilians, urging Israel in a statement on Friday to cease its attacks, especially those targeting humanitarian workers providing aid.

More than 230 aid workers have been killed amid Israel’s aggression on Gaza, the majority of whom were affiliated with UNRWA, which has faced increased hostility from Israel, exemplified by the Knesset’s resolution to ban the organization on October 28.

In the letter published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN officials described the situation in northern Gaza as “apocalyptic.” “The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue. Just in the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands have once again been forcibly displaced.”

The letter’s signatories called for unhindered humanitarian access to the besieged region and for humanitarian missions to reach those in need. The statement emphasized that there is no alternative to UNRWA for the provision of humanitarian services in Gaza, arguing that Israel’s ban goes against main aspects of the UN Charter and could have severe implications on the human rights of millions of Palestinians who rely on its aid.

Speaking to the Guardian on the sidelines of the COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, Guterres said on Wednesday: “The intention might be for the Palestinians to leave Gaza, for others to occupy it, but there has been — and I pay tribute to the courage and resilience of the Palestinian people and to the determination of the Arab world — [an effort] to avoid the ethnic cleansing becoming a reality. We will do everything possible to help them remain there and to avoid ethnic cleansing that might occur if there is not strong determination from the international community.”

On October 13, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had declared Guterres persona non grata.