Reporters Without Borders condemns military strikes against pro-Islamist Palestinian media

Reporters Without Borders condemned an Israeli Defense Forces' (IDF's) strike against a central Gaza building housing several local and international press offices, in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon on 5 July 2004. On 29 June an Israeli Apache helicopter fired several missiles at the 12-storey al-Shawa and Husari building in al-Whida Street, that houses among others, al-Jazeera, ARD, CNN, BBC, NBC and Kuwait TV. Two technicians employed by the broadcaster Ramattan were slightly injured in the raid. Other journalists were in the building at the time, since it is used around the clock. Three missiles hit the third floor, destroying the al-Jeel press centre owned by freelance Palestinian journalist Mustapha al-Sawaf. A fourth missiles caused serious damage to the floor above. No witnesses or the Israeli Army had reported any hostile or armed activity in the building. Mustapha al-Sawaf works for a number of media, including the website Islam-on-line, Dubai-based MBC television, Palestinian website Saberon and Jordanian newspaper Sabil. The raid came just a few hours after a rocket attack, claimed by Hamas, that left two dead including a four-year-old child, in the Israeli town of Sderot, near the Gaza Strip. "Even though this kind of blind attack against civilians is unacceptable and runs completely contrary to international humanitarian law, that does not give the Israeli Army the right to target local media," said Reporters Without Borders in the letter. The IDF reported on its website, without further detail, that it had struck at "the headquarters of a body that incites [anti-Israeli] hatred" and is "in constant contact with terrorists". Under international humanitarian law a media - its offices and equipment - cannot constitute a legitimate military target unless it contributes effectively to military action by for example relaying orders and its destruction provides a decisive military advantage. The IDF has produced no supporting evidence that al-Jeel was contributing effectively to the Hamas terror effort. The islamist opinions of the journalist Mustapha al-Sawaf cannot justify military action on this scale. The IDF operation moreover placed the lives of civilians in their workplace in serious danger, in this case those of journalists and media workers. As the Israeli Foreign Press Association (FPA) said in its own statement, it betrays serious contempt for the safety of journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This disproportionate and ill-considered action could have had tragic consequences. The inflammatory comments of the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO), who described the FPA reaction as "curious, hypocritical and insolent," also revealed the arrogance of the Israeli authorities towards the foreign press. Reporters Without Borders added that it was all the more concerned about this attack on the pro-Islamist media because it was the third such operation within two months. Two Israeli helicopters on 2 May partly destroyed the offices of Radio al-Aqsa that is close to the Hamas movement. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza, the offices of the weekly al-Rissala, in the al-Nasr district of Gaza City were hit by an air raid on 16 May.