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Al Jazeera Says Two of Its Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike in Gaza

Palestinians inspect a vehicle where Al Jazeera TV said its reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City July 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect a vehicle where Al Jazeera TV said its reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City July 31, 2024. (Reuters)
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Al Jazeera Says Two of Its Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike in Gaza

Palestinians inspect a vehicle where Al Jazeera TV said its reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City July 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect a vehicle where Al Jazeera TV said its reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City July 31, 2024. (Reuters)

Two Al Jazeera reporters were killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza on Wednesday, the satellite news network said, the latest Palestinian journalists working with the Qatari network to be killed in the war-torn enclave. 

Correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul, 27, cameraman Rami al-Rifi and a child who was not identified were killed in a blast that struck a car in Gaza City that the three were traveling in, according to the network and the Emergency and Ambulance Service, which helps recover and transport casualties to hospitals across Gaza. 

The two journalists had been reporting together at the Shati Refugee Camp, the birthplace of slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was killed in a strike in the early hours of the day in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Haniyeh had attended the swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday for Masoud Pezeshkian, the new president of Iran, a Hamas ally. 

The latest journalism deaths bring the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last October to 111, including 106 Palestinians, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists which tally's the casualties. The other five journalists killed are two Lebanese and three Israelis. 

The bodies of the two Al Jazeera journalists were taken to the nearby al-Ahli hospital from where their Al Jazeera colleague, Anas al-Sharif, went on air in a phone interview with the channel. No information about the slain child was immediately available. 

The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strike. 

United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called for a full investigation and accountability for the killings of the Al Jazeera journalists and others, saying that journalists everywhere need to be protected. 

The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate and Hamas both accused Israel of assassinating the two journalists. 

The Israeli government closed Al Jazeera offices in Israel in May, based on a new law that enables it to close down media outlets it says are a security threat and incite against Israeli troops. The Israeli government says the network has close ties to Hamas — a claim Al Jazeera denies — as many of the armed group's leading officials are based in the Qatari capital. 

Throughout the latest Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, now in its tenth month, the openly pro-Palestinian Al Jazeera has accused Israel of targeting its journalists. 

In December, Samer Abudaqa, one of the network’s cameramen was killed in a strike. Wael Dahdouh, the outlet’s bureau chief in Gaza, was reporting in late October when he received word on air that his wife, daughter, a son and grandchild were killed in an Israeli airstrike.  

In January, a strike killed another of his sons, who was also working for Al Jazeera. 

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Crisis in French-Algerian Relations Opens the Door to the Unknown

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)
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Crisis in French-Algerian Relations Opens the Door to the Unknown

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron (Algerian Presidency)

Three questions are raised by the decision of French President Emmanuel Macron to adopt the Moroccan approach to the Sahara issue, which is included in the Rabat Plan proposed in 2007: the first is the timing, the second is the reasons and motivations, and the third is the consequences and results.
Macron, along with French diplomacy, are aware of how sensitive the Sahara issue is to Algeria, and they know that the Algerian side will not be able to absorb the radical change in the French position.
French political sources said that the French president wanted to achieve two goals: the first is to take advantage of the occasion of Morocco’s celebration of the ascension of King Mohammed VI to the throne “to offer him a diplomatic and political gift in a file that the latter had made a compass for his country’s foreign policy.” Macron went further than Spain when it largely adopted the Moroccan solution plan in 2022.

The second reason for the timing of Macron’s initiative is linked, according to the political sources, to the internal political situation in France, where the government has resigned, parliament is on vacation and the country is busy with the Olympics.
It is likely that Macron wanted to benefit from the current institutional “vacuum” before forming a new government, which may have a different approach to the Sahara issue, despite the fact that the French Constitution entrusts the President of the Republic with drawing up the country’s foreign and defense policy.
Press reports revealed that French diplomats began working on the new approach in the spring of 2023, and that many meetings were held between diplomatic officials from the two sides.
These reports also referred to the pressure exerted by Moroccan diplomacy on France, and one of the arguments, according to French “L’Opinion”, was to remind Paris that former President Jacques Chirac, who was a great friend of Morocco, was the one who called on Rabat, since 2003, to present its autonomy plan, in order to bypass a Sahrawi referendum that would decide on the fate of the Sahara.
L'Opinion pointed to another factor: the departure of Bernard Emie, the former ambassador to Algeria and director of French foreign intelligence, from the scene last spring. Emie was one of the strongest advocates for the establishment of a special relationship between Paris and Algeria, and his absence left the door open for those who continued to assert that Algeria did not respond to the initiatives of Macron, who during the past three years made major efforts to close the controversial files with Algiers.
Another French political source added that Paris saw today that Algeria’s ability to influence its immediate surroundings, especially in the Sahel region, has declined significantly after its dispute with two neighboring countries, Mali and Niger. On the other hand, Morocco’s return to the African Union could constitute a “platform” for joint French-Moroccan action at the political, economic, and investment levels.
Politics cannot be separated from economic, trade and investment interests. France has major interests in Morocco, which may have played some role in pushing the French authorities to change their approach, and causing a “heavy” crisis with Algeria.
In response to Algeria’s decision to immediately withdraw its ambassador to Paris, Said Makousi, a French diplomatic source said that France “took note of Algeria’s decision, which is a sovereign decision.”
He added: “We are determined to strengthen our bilateral relations with Algeria; we look to the future, and our great ambition is to work for the benefit of our two peoples.”