The Southern African Times expresses its deepest outrage and sorrow following the targeted killing of four Al Jazeera journalists — Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohammed Noufal — along with freelance journalists Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khaldi in a deadly Israeli airstrike near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital on 10 August 2025.
The journalists, all clearly identified and operating from a designated media tent outside the hospital, were reporting on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. According to Al Jazeera, the group was not on the front lines but in a location well-known to the Israel Defense Forces. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attack as part of a disturbing pattern in which Palestinian reporters are killed and later accused — without credible evidence — of terrorist affiliations.
These killings are not isolated. Since Israel launched its military offensive in October 2023, at least 186 journalists have been confirmed dead, alongside more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The ongoing campaign, marked by relentless bombing, siege-induced starvation, and suppression of press freedom, is part of a broader, decades-long military occupation.
The Southern African Times unequivocally defines these actions as genocide — the systematic destruction of a people, their culture, and their means of survival. The deliberate targeting of journalists and civilians represents an attack on truth itself and violates the core principles of international humanitarian law.
We call for immediate action from the international community, and demand:
- An immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the mass killing of civilians and journalists.
- The complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from Gaza and the West Bank, ending the illegal occupation.
- Recognition and implementation of the Oslo Accords, ensuring a viable two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.
- Independent investigations into the targeted killings of journalists and other war crimes committed in this campaign.
For the families of the slain journalists, justice is not optional — it is owed. For the people of Palestine, the right to live free from siege, occupation, and dispossession is not negotiable — it is a fundamental human right.
As a publication committed to truth, justice, and human dignity, The Southern African Times stands in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people, the families of the fallen journalists, and all media workers who risk their lives to bear witness to injustice.
Journalism is not a crime. Silencing the press is silencing humanity. The world must act — now.
