Veteran war reporter: "We've never seen such a number of journalists killed"

CGTN Europe spoke to Elijah J Magnier, veteran war correspondent and political risk analyst, about the targeted killing of Al Jazeera crew in Gaza.

Transcript

00:00Israel alleges that the existence of documents unequivocally proved that the Al Jazeera journalist

00:06Anas al-Sharif was linked to Hamas. There's been no independent verification and the experts who've

00:12seen what evidence there is so far say it's unconvincing. What do you think?

00:18Thank you for having me. I think the Israelis are excellent in counter the allegation

00:27by offering another point of view to make sure that people are confused about the reality.

00:34And if the Israelis were right in one case, they cannot be right in between 100 and 200

00:42journalists killed in Gaza, specifically targeting journalists in their tent and killing six

00:49journalists in one hit of a drone, it means that they are really targeting the voice of the

00:59journalists, in particular when Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech yesterday saying that Israel

01:08has lost the narrative, that leaders around the world are complaining about the unhappiness of the

01:16population of what Israel is doing in Gaza, adding to that that the Israelis are preventing

01:23international journalists to go and be neutral in their discovery and report what is really

01:30happening from inside Gaza. This is what the Israelis are killing. And Hamas has said that the killings

01:36may signal the start of a new Israeli offensive there in Gaza City. What do you make of the timing

01:42of these killings? Well, we don't need Hamas to tell us that. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told

01:49us already that he has agreed with his mini cabinet to occupy the entire strip of Gaza. Already they

01:56occupy 70 percent, but they're going to start with the Gaza City where there are 700,000 Palestinians

02:04living in a very small area along the beach where they are allowed to be. So the preparation of this new

02:14offensive that the Israelis, notwithstanding all the protests around the world and the Western leaders

02:22that are allies of Israel, are asking the Israelis to stop the war. This is a perfect timing for Benjamin Netanyahu

02:31to make sure that there are less voices coming from Gaza. The committee to protect journalists says

02:39that 186 journalists have been confirmed as killed since the start of Israel's military offensive in

02:45Gaza in October 2023. Is there any precedence at all for this number of reporters dying in the line of

02:52duty? And is it, do you think, linked to the fact that foreign news teams are so far still not allowed into

02:58Gaza? Well, I mean, the Second World War did not see such a large number of killed journalists. The war

03:08in Ukraine and Russia seen around 50 plus journalists killed. The war that I've covered in the former

03:16Yugoslavia or in Iran-Iraq or in the Middle East, in Africa, in Afghanistan, everywhere, we have never seen

03:25such a large number of journalists killed. And yet journalists in Gaza, only those who are Palestinians

03:35are able to cover the news. And they are the ones who are delivering the message, which makes it very

03:41easy for the Israelis, really, to counter-argue and saying, well, these people belong to Hamas and it is

03:48Hamas version of the story. No, we haven't never seen such a large number of journalists. And also,

03:55we have never seen an entity calling journalists and saying, if you continue, we're going to kill you.

04:03Really grateful for your insights today, Elijah J. Magnier, former war correspondent and risk analyst.

04:09Thank you very much indeed.