Al Jazeera To Refer Killing Of Cameraman In Gaza To International Criminal Court

The Al Jazeera Media Network has stated its intention to refer the killing of its cameraman Samer Abudaqa in Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

In a statement on Saturday, the Qatar-based network said it has instructed its legal team to urgently refer the case of what it called "the assassination" of Al Jazeera Arabic cameraman Samer Abudaqa to the court in The Hague.

The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, was killed by a drone strike on Friday while reporting on the earlier bombing of a school used as a shelter for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera said Israeli drones fired missiles at the school that left Abu Daqqa with fatal injuries. 

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Dahdouh – who lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson in a previous Israeli bombing – was wounded in the same attack on Friday. He was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to reach the Nasser Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

As of December 16, preliminary investigations of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJs) showed at least 64 journalists and media workers were among the more than 19,000 killed since the war began on October 7—with some 18,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters and Agence France Press news agencies that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, after they had sought assurances that their journalists would not be targeted by Israeli strikes, Reuters reported on October 27.

Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the war during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and extensive power outages.