CrossFireArarbia

UNESCO Condemns Killing of Journalists

CrossFireArabia
August 13, 2025

The UN organization which champions culture and education, UNESCO, has strongly condemned the targeted killing of six journalists in Palestine by an Israeli drone on 10 August.

“I condemn the killing of journalists Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Al-Khaldi and call for a thorough and transparent investigation,” UNESCO’s Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Five of the six worked for the influential Qatari-based media organization, Al Jazeera: Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh were on air correspondents, while Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa worked as camera operators. Mohammed Al-Khaldi was a freelance photojournalist.

They were reportedly killed by an Israeli attack on a tent used by media personnel at the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Blatant, premeditated attack

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) alleged that 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif was a serving Hamas operative. Al Jazeera strongly denies this, describing the attack as an “assassination” and “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.”

The UN Human Rights Council-appointed independent expert on freedom of expression issued a statement on 31 July denouncing an Israeli military spokesperson’s “repeated threats” and “unfounded accusations” against Mr. Anas Al-Sharif, flagging it as “a blatant attempt to endanger his life and silence his reporting” in Gaza.

Condemning the attack in the strongest possible terms on Tuesday, two special rapporteurs described the killings as “an attempt to silence reporting on the ongoing genocide and starvation campaign” in Gaza.

“It is outrageous that the Israeli army dares to first launch a campaign to smear Anas Al-Sharif as Hamas in order to discredit his reporting and then kill him and his colleagues for speaking the truth to the world,” the experts said, demanding an immediate investigation into the killings and full access to international media, which Israel currently bars from entering Gaza.

Special Rapporteurs and other independent experts are appointed by and report regularly to the Human Rights Council. They work in their individual capacity, are not UN staff and receive no payment for their work.

Violation of international law

UNESCO chief Ms. Azoulay stressed that targeting journalists reporting on conflicts is unacceptable and violates international law.

She also reiterated her call to respect UN Security Council Resolution 2222, which was unanimously adopted in 2015 to protect journalists, media professionals and associated personnel in conflict situations.

Since October 2023, UNESCO has reported at least 62 journalists and media workers killed in the line of duty in Palestine, excluding deaths in circumstances unrelated to their work, while OHCHR reports that at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the same time frame.

UN News

Features

Who is With Israel in World Sports?

CrossFireArabia
August 12, 2025

The refusal of international and continental sports federations to suspend Israel’s membership, 22 months after its perpetration of genocide in the Gaza Strip, constitutes a blatant violation of the values and principles they claim to uphold. It reflects a selective, double-standard application of the rules governing the participation of states, clubs, and individuals in international and continental competitions, whether official or friendly.

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the International Olympic Committee, and other international federations continue to refrain from acting against Israel, despite its killing of 664 Palestinian athletes since the start of the genocide in the Gaza Strip in October 2023 and its violations of regulations and standards on human rights, peace, and non-discrimination.

Since the start of its genocide, Israel has targeted all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip, including the sports sector. According to the Palestinian Football Association, the Israeli army has destroyed 264 sports facilities, 184 completely and 81 partially.

Sports activities in the Gaza Strip have been completely suspended since October 2023 due to the widespread and systematic targeting of sports infrastructure, which has been almost entirely destroyed.

Athletes have been killed or, like most of Gaza’s population, forced to devote their time and effort to finding shelter and food, amid ongoing Israeli military attacks, repeated displacement, and starvation and blockade policies that have left the entire population food insecure and claimed the lives of approximately 220 people to date.

In July alone, the Israeli army killed 40 athletes and scouts, the vast majority in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestine Olympic Committee.

The global influence of football associations, particularly FIFA and UEFA, places a double responsibility on them to uphold human rights principles and exclude national associations whose member states are implicated in serious crimes. It is unjustifiable for the Israeli national team to continue participating in FIFA tournaments, or for Israeli clubs to compete in UEFA tournaments, while Israel kills nearly one Palestinian athlete every day.

The continued disregard by international and continental sports federations for their own regulations, and their failure to take disciplinary action against Israel, constitutes a breach of their ethical and institutional obligations and exposes them to accountability, particularly if Israel exploits its international sporting participation to whitewash human rights violations and promote its sporting activities as a cover for atrocities committed by its army against Palestinian civilians.

The normalisation by sports federations of the participation of representatives of a state committing genocide is not only a legal violation but also an unprecedented moral failure. Allowing Israeli athletes to perform before audiences of hundreds of millions misleads the public and enables Israel to use sporting events as a powerful tool to influence global opinion.

In many cases, Israeli athletes themselves are implicated in grave violations against Palestinian civilians, with consistent estimates indicating that about 30 members of the Israeli delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympics served in the Israeli military or publicly supported the genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Although there is no official data on Israeli athletes who served in the army, Israel’s policy of compulsory conscription makes it reasonable to believe that most people of active athletic age served as reserve soldiers and may have participated in crimes committed during the genocide in the Gaza Strip, particularly given the army’s extensive and long-standing reliance on reserve forces to destroy civilians and infrastructure in the enclave.

FIFA’s regulations provide clear grounds to punish Israel. Article 3 of the FIFA Statutes states that “FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.” Article 16 also empowers the FIFA Council, “without a vote of the Congress, [to] temporarily suspend with immediate effect a member association that seriously violates its obligations.”

Similarly, Article 11 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations states that “all entities and persons subject to these regulations must respect the Laws of the Game, as well as UEFA’s Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions, and comply with the principles of ethical conduct, loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship.” Article 14 provides that “any entity or person subject to these regulations who insults the human dignity of a person or group of persons on whatever grounds, including skin colour, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation, incurs a suspension lasting at least ten matches or a specified period of time, or any other appropriate sanction.”

On this basis, Israel could be punished and its clubs banned from European competitions for violating the principles of non-discrimination and integrity, engaging in conduct that conflicts with UEFA values, particularly by including clubs from illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory in its league, and for the racist and discriminatory behaviour of some Israeli players.

As for the International Olympic Committee, Principle 1 of the Fundamental Principles of Olympism in the Olympic Charter states that “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, […] and respect for internationally recognised human rights.” Article 1 of the Fundamental Principles of the Olympic Code of Ethics also stipulates “respect for human dignity.” Accordingly, the Committee can punish Israel by suspending its membership for violating these and other principles.

It is unacceptable for the administrations of international and continental sports federations to submit to political pressure or favouritism, or to apply double standards in addressing human rights violations.

FIFA swiftly suspended Russia and its football clubs from official activities following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with UEFA following suit by banning Russian teams from European championships and prohibiting matches on Russian soil. The International Olympic Committee also acted, citing allegations of human rights violations, aggression against the sovereignty of an independent state, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

International and continental sports federations must take a decisive and immediate stance by suspending Israel’s membership in all sporting activities, banning events on its territory, ending its treatment as a state above the law, and imposing all disciplinary measures for the genocide it is committing in the Gaza Strip. They must also prevent Israel from using sport to whitewash gross human rights violations and normalise its illegal actions internationally.

The Israeli Football Association must be compelled to remove settlement clubs in the occupied Palestinian territory from its domestic competitions, in line with the rules of territorial jurisdiction and the non-recognition of illegal annexation.

Euro-Med Monitor calls on international and continental sports federations to form independent committees to document the destruction of sports infrastructure and the killing of Palestinian athletes, press Israel to rebuild the destroyed facilities, compensate affected athletes, and provide emergency support to Palestinian federations to ensure their continued operation through temporary headquarters, secure equipment and records, and rehabilitation programmes.

Features

Film: A Gaza That No Longer Exists

CrossFireArabia
August 11, 2025

By Kazim Alam

In the summer of 2023, the London-based Palestinian filmmaker Yousef Alhelou travelled to Gaza with a simple mission to capture the vibrant pulse of a place that has long been off-limits to the world.

What he did not know was that his footage would soon become an unintentional obituary.

The Phoenix of Gaza, a 48-minute documentary, was filmed just months before Israel launched what Alhelou now calls a “genocidal war” on the strip.

Premiered in London in February 2025, the documentary stands as a hauntingly beautiful archive of a Gaza that no longer exists.

Over a period of two years, Israel dropped more than 85,000 tonnes of bombs on Gaza, reducing the enclave to dust. Alhelou’s film now serves as an archive, a memory, and a monument.

Through his lens, we witness a Gaza that was already a “Riviera of the Middle East,” a place of joy and defiance that Israel turned into a mass graveyard.

“We refused to vanish. We refused to give up,” he says.

He shows us an authentic view of the place now touted as the “Riviera of the Middle East” in AI-generated videos.

Gaza before annihilation

Shot in July and August 2023, The Phoenix of Gaza is breathtakingly beautiful.

The film opens in London. We see him in his London apartment, packing his bags, his voice brimming with anticipation as he prepares to return to Gaza after a decade away.

He calls his mother, who showers him with prayers for safe travels, while his 10-year-old son makes a quick appearance.

“I wanted to show the world the life of Gazans, the daily life, the hustle and bustle,” he tells TRT World.

Little did Alhelou know that this footage, shot in July and August of 2023, would become a historical artefact, the last unvarnished portrait of Gaza before its annihilation at the hands of Israeli forces.

Where once there were vibrant markets, there is now rubble. Where children played, there are now craters. Photo: TRT World / Yousef Alhelou

Through sweeping drone shots, we see a city that defies its 20-year siege.

Clean roads hum with smooth traffic, high-rise buildings adorned with solar panels, born of necessity after Israel bombed Gaza’s only power plant in 2006.

Greenbelts and trees dot the urban sprawl, while public parks appear full of families lounging on picnic chairs, children playing, and people strolling along the pristine Mediterranean beach.

“We managed to beautify and decorate our prison of Gaza,” Alhelou says, emphasising the resilience of a people who transformed a “high-density concentration camp” into a vibrant urban centre.

The beach is crowded, the water clear. Palestinian flags flutter as water-skiers speed by. The imagery defies the narrative of Gaza as a place of only suffering.

His approach is unpretentious: he walks through markets, parks, streets. He chats with shopkeepers, children, and the elderly.

At a public square, a phoenix statue, which is the emblem of Gaza’s municipality, stands as a symbol of rebirth, a motif that resonates throughout the documentary.

He takes us to the ancient gold market, its shopfronts full of jewellery, and the 1,400-year-old Great Omari Mosque, a UNESCO-protected site, later reduced to rubble by Israeli bombs.

On Omar al-Mukhtar Street, named after the famed Libyan anti-colonial warrior, restaurants and shops appear full of customers, scenes now unimaginable as the street currently lies in ruins.

In the Shujayyah neighbourhood of Alhelou’s childhood, children roam the same streets that he did in the 1980s, unaware that many would soon perish in Israel’s indiscriminate bombings.

He films the 700-year-old Pasha Palace, where Napoleon once slept for three nights, and the Church of Saint Porphyrius, built in 1160, both destroyed by Israeli bombs.

He explores beachside cafes and Gaza’s culinary scene by hopping to the roadside food stands. He visits the Ottoman Hamam, a space for relaxation, near the historic Jewish neighbourhood, which predated the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The documentary highlights the educational achievements in Gaza, a place that has one of the world’s highest literacy rates on a per capita basis.

Scenes of cultural events – music, art, and a wedding ceremony – capture the “heartbeat of Gaza”, while a student appreciation ceremony celebrates young graduates with song and dance.

Even Gaza’s cemeteries tell a story. Alhelou lingers in the English cemetery, where 3,500 graves of World War I soldiers are meticulously kept, a gesture of dignity, in sharp contrast to the thousands of Palestinians now buried beneath collapsed buildings.

Elegy for family under rubble

He left Gaza in late August 2023. The war’s toll is personal.

“This genocidal war impacted me in the sense that I cannot believe that my city, the place of my birth, has been destroyed and that it’s beyond recognition,” he says.

Alhelou’s eldest sister, Asma, and her seven children were killed in Israeli strikes and are still buried under the rubble. His elderly parents and siblings remain in Gaza, fighting a daily battle for survival amid Israel-imposed starvation.

The documentary, initially intended for his Arabic-speaking followers, has taken the shape of an elegy meant “to keep the memory and the legacy of Gaza for generations to come.”

The contrast between Gaza then and now is gut-wrenching. Where once there were vibrant markets, there is now rubble. Where children played, there are now craters.

The Riviera of Gaza, which Alhelou compares to Singapore and Dubai, is gone. It has been replaced by a landscape where “there is no infrastructure, no electricity, no water, no food, no places to visit”.

The “man-made starvation” orchestrated by Israel is particularly harrowing. “I cannot believe that we are facing starvation in the 21st century,” Alhelou says.

TRTWorld

News

Israel Kills Journalists

CrossFireArabia
August 11, 2025

Up till 11 August 2025, Israel and its army has killed 237 journalists in Gaza

News

Silencing Messengers: Israel Kills Five Journalists

CrossFireArabia
August 11, 2025

Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qraiqea were killed Sunday, along with three other Al Jazeera journalists, in an Israeli strike targeting a journalists’ tent near the Al-Shifa Hospital in western Gaza City, according to the Gaza Media Office.

The Qatar-based channel quoted the director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza who said, “Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qraiqea were martyred in an Israeli strike on their tent,” without providing details.

The channel later confirmed that al-Sharif and Qraiqea were killed in an Israeli strike.

Al Jazeera Media Network early Monday condemned the “planned” assassination of its correspondents and cameramen in the Gaza Strip, calling it “a desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza.”

“The order to kill Anas al-Sharif, one of Gaza’s bravest journalists, and his colleagues is a desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza,” it said.

Al Jazeera’s statement noted that “many Israeli army officials repeatedly incited and called for targeting Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues,” as it held “the occupation army and its government responsible for targeting and assassinating its team.”

The statement added that “the assassination of our correspondents by the Israeli occupation forces is another blatant and deliberate attack on press freedom.”

The Gaza Media Office announced in a statement that the number of journalists killed since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 237, following the killing of al-Sharif and Qraiqea, along with three other journalists.

It identified the other journalists killed as photojournalists Ibrahim Dahir and Moumin Alaywa and an assistant photojournalist Mohammed Noufal.

“The assassination was carried out with premeditation and deliberation, through a deliberate, intentional, and direct targeting of the journalists’ tent in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. This heinous crime also resulted in the injury of several other fellow journalists,” it added

The Director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Anadolu that the deaths from the strike on the tent in front of the complex’s gate have risen to seven, including five journalists.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army admitted in a statement to killing al-Sharif in Gaza City, while ignoring the killing of Qraiqea and the three other journalists in the same strike.

In his will that was written Aug. 6, which he requested be published after his death, al-Sharif wrote: “This is my will, and my final message. If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings.”

“Allah knows that I gave all the effort and strength I had to be a support and a voice for my people, ever since I opened my eyes to life in the alleys and streets of Jabalia refugee camp. My hope was that God would prolong my life so I could return with my family and loved ones to our original hometown of occupied Asqalan (al-Majdal), but God’s will came first, and His decree is carried out,” he said.

“I have lived pain in all its forms, and tasted grief and loss many times. Yet I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification, hoping that Allah would bear witness against those who remained silent, those who accepted our killing, those who suffocated our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered bodies of our children and women, and who did not stop the massacre our people have been subjected to for more than a year and a half.

“I urge you to hold fast to Palestine, the jewel in the crown of Muslims, and the heartbeat of every free person in this world.

“I urge you to care for its people, for its wronged little children who were not given enough time in life to dream or to live in safety and peace, whose pure bodies were crushed beneath thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.

“I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders hold you back. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our usurped homeland.

“I urge you to care for my family. Take care of the apple of my eye, my beloved daughter Sham, whom the days did not allow me to watch grow up as I had dreamed as reported by Anadolu.

“And care for my dear son Salah, whom I had hoped to support and walk beside until he grew strong enough to carry my burdens and continue the mission.

“I urge you to care for my beloved mother, whose blessed prayers carried me to where I am, whose supplications were my fortress and whose light guided my path. I pray that Allah will comfort her heart and reward her abundantly on my behalf.

“Also take care for my life partner, my beloved wife, Umm Salah, Bayan, from whom the war separated me for long days and months, yet she remained true to our bond, steadfast like the trunk of an olive tree that does not bend, patient and trusting in Allah, carrying the responsibility in my absence with all strength and faith.

“I urge you to stand by them and be their support after Allah Almighty. If I die, then I die steadfast in my principles, and I bear witness before Allah that I am content with His decree, faithful in meeting Him, and certain that what is with Allah is better and everlasting.

“O Allah, accept me among the martyrs, forgive me my past and future sins, and make my blood a light that illuminates the path of freedom for my people and my family. Forgive me if I have fallen short, and pray for me to receive mercy, for I have remained true to the covenant, never changing or wavering.

“Do not forget Gaza … And do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance,” he wrote..

Israel is facing mounting condemnation for its genocidal war on Gaza, where it has killed more than 61,000 victims since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.