UK Gaza Families Urge Starmer to Hold Israel Accountable for Press Killings

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The UK Gaza Community – a group representing 350 Palestinian families living in the UK – has urged Keir Starmer to demand an international investigation into what it calls Israel’s “unprecedented and systematic assault on the press.”

Their appeal follows an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City that killed seven people on Sunday (10th August), including Al Jazeera reporters Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqueh, cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, and two other media workers, Moamen Aliwa and Mohammad Al-Khalidi.

“These journalists are not just names on a screen – they are well known to us. They are friends, relatives, former classmates, and people from our neighbourhoods. Their families, schools, and communities are deeply woven into our own lives here in the UK,” the group wrote in a letter to Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy on Tuesday.

“They have been the faces and voices relating the horror back home to us, and their loss is deeply distressing and personal,” the letter reads. 

The community has also called for the British Government to take other steps, including the suspension of arms sales and military cooperation with Israel and the use of diplomatic measures to call for the protection of journalists and civilians.

“The killing of journalists – targeted or through reckless disregard – is a breach of international humanitarian law and an assault on truth itself,” the group writes, accusing Israel of attempting to “disguise a genocidal project from public view.”

The Israeli military has claimed, with no tangible evidence, that Al-Sharif had “served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas.” Al Jazeera denies the claims, as did Al-Sharif before his death in a public post on ‘X’. The IDF has so far remained silent about the six others killed in the attack.

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“We wrote this letter because of how deeply connected our community feels to these journalists,” the group’s co-founder Basem Farajallah told Byline Times.

“On a personal level, they were the voices who covered our stories and showed us the truth about what was happening to our loved ones. It is therefore deeply painful for us to see them being targeted and killed.”

“Most of these journalists are locals to many of our community members – we know their families, their schools, and their neighbourhoods. In many cases, we can say that we know them personally.” Farajallah himself grew up in Jabalia, alongside the family of Al-Sharif. “They are great, friendly and supportive people,” he said.

Journalists, Farajallah says, “have played a vital role to show the truth” to the wider world. Checking in on his sister who lives in Gaza, he recalls her response: “You outside know better than us,” she told him. “You can watch the news, while we have no electricity or TVs.”

“Through this message,” he adds, “we aim to make the public aware of the grave consequences that can arise from arms supplied to Israel, and how such weapons can be – and have been – used. We view the deliberate targeting of journalists as a clear and serious war crime, and we strongly believe that Britain must not be complicit in such actions.”

Figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists, Gaza officials, and the International Federation of Journalists vary — but all put the number of journalists killed since Israel’s offensive began on 7 October 2023 at over 180. The number is potentially much higher, according to the Watson Institute’s Cost of War Project, which has described Gaza as “the worst ever conflict for reporters”.

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The August 10 strike has drawn condemnation from across the media and human rights community.

Al Jazeera said that, despite losing colleagues to “deliberate attacks” and working under constant threat, Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qraiqea, and others “persisted… to ensure the world sees the harrowing truth” of life in Gaza. The network urged the international community to “halt this ongoing genocide” and end the targeting of journalists, warning that “immunity for perpetrators” only emboldens Israel.

Reporters Without Borders described the killings as a “media blackout strategy” to conceal crimes committed in “a besieged and starving Palestinian enclave.” Director General Thibaut Bruttin said: “The international community can no longer turn a blind eye… this impunity must end.”

A spokesperson for Amnesty International Australia said that “Israel isn’t just assassinating journalists, but attacking journalism itself by preventing the documentation of genocide.”

And the UK’s National Union of Journalists called the strike a “horrific attack” and accused Israel of “systematically discrediting, targeting and killing local journalists.”

The UN Human Rights Office posted on X: “Israel must respect & protect all civilians, including journalists. We call for immediate, safe and unhindered access to Gaza for all journalists.”

The UK Gaza Community’s letter closes with a warning: “Our frustration grows each day that silence prevails… These killings are part of a systemic pattern that must end.”

A spokesperson for Starmer said the Prime Minister was “gravely concerned” by the repeated targeting of journalists and called for an independent investigation into Al-Sharif’s alleged Hamas links — but he has stopped short of backing an inquiry into the killings themselves.