Türkiye condemns Israeli attack on journalists as 'attempt to conceal truth'
ANKARA
The Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed strong condemnation on Tuesday regarding an Israeli assault on journalists from the Turkish public broadcaster TRT, characterizing it as "an effort by bloodstained Israel to conceal the truth."
"We stand in solidarity with all journalists who are tirelessly working to expose Israel's oppression to the world,” the ministry wrote in a statement on X.
The ministry conveyed wishes for a rapid recovery to the TRT personnel injured in the attack and expressed support for the entire TRT network.
The incident resulted in an injury to Mohammad al-Zeineen, a cameraman for TRT Arabi, the broadcaster's Arabic channel, who suffered an eye injury due to shrapnel after Israeli forces targeted a vehicle near a journalists' tent located by Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
This is not the first time the TRT Arabi team has faced danger; in April, the Israeli army previously attacked them while they were reporting in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The attack severely injured crew member Sami Shehadeh, resulting in the amputation of his right leg.
Just a day before the attack, some 60 media and rights organizations on Monday urged the European Union to suspend a cooperation accord with Israel and impose sanctions, accusing it of "massacring journalists" in Gaza.
"In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war with Hamas, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organizations are calling on the European Union to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel and to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible," the groups said in a joint statement.
The period following Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel's devastating retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip "has been the deadliest for journalists in decades," the letter said.
"More than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since Oct. 7. At least 30 of them were killed in the course of their work; three Lebanese journalists and an Israeli journalist have also been killed during the same period," it says.
