Al Jazeera to refer Gaza killing of cameraman to war crimes court

Mourners react as they attend the funeral of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who according to the Arabic broadcaster was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Friday, December 15, 2023, while reporting on the earlier bombing of a school sheltering displaced people, but Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 16, 2023. REUTERS/Bassam Masoud

CAIRO — Al Jazeera is preparing a legal file to send to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over what it called “the assassination” of one of its cameramen in Gaza, the Qatari-based network said Saturday.

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, according to the Qatar-based broadcaster.

Al Jazeera said Israeli drones fired missiles at the school that left Abu Daqqa with fatal injuries. Reuters could not verify the details of the incident.

“The Network established a joint working group, which comprises of its international legal team and international legal experts who will collaboratively initiate the process of compiling a comprehensive file for submission to the court’s prosecutor,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.

“The legal file will also encompass recurrent attacks on the Network’s crews working and operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and instances of incitement against them.”

READ: Journalists among the Gaza war dead

Commenting on the incident, the Israeli army said in a statement it has “never, and will never” deliberately target journalists. It also said that remaining in an active combat zone during exchanges of fire “has inherent risks”.

The ICC already has an ongoing investigation into any alleged crimes within its jurisdiction committed on Palestinian territory and by Palestinians on the territory of Israel.

In 2021, ICC judges ruled that the court has jurisdiction after the Palestinian authorities signed up to the court in 2015 and were granted United Nations observer state status.

READ: Palestinian poet killed in Gaza bombardment

Israel does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC over the Palestinian territories and has previously refused to cooperate with the court.

The ICC office of the prosecutor does not typically comment on the details of ongoing investigations.

The 10 weeks of war in Gaza have taken a heavy toll on journalists, with at least 64 reporters and media workers killed, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Friday.

READ: Reuters journalist dead, AFP reporters among 6 wounded in south Lebanon

The CPJ called on international authorities to “conduct an independent investigation into the attack to hold the perpetrators to account.”

An Israeli tank crew killed Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on Oct. 13 by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel while the journalists were filming cross-border shelling, a Reuters investigation found.

The Israeli military said the incident took place in an active combat zone and was under review.