OSLO, April 9, 2018 (WAFA) - The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Monday that Yasser Murtaja, a Gaza journalist, was killed by Israeli army gunfire while working on a story on life of Gazans and particularly impact of violence on Gaza children.
NRC expressed its outrage at the killing of 30 Palestinian civilians and injury of thousands others in Gaza by the Israeli military in the last two weeks of protests at the Gaza border, describing the deadly force used by the Israeli military against the civilians as “a gross violation of their protection under humanitarian and human rights law.”
It also called for holding those responsible accountable for their actions.
NRC said in a statement that it has contracted Murtaja, 30, to document the impact of the long conflict on Gaza refugees and violence on Gaza’s children.
“Murtaja had agreed to document for NRC the bitter prolonged struggle faced by Palestinian refugees in Gaza. The work was planned to start the day after he was killed,” it said.
"I talked to Yasser on Wednesday evening by phone, after he came back from the Access Restricted Zone in Gaza where Palestinians were demonstrating," said NRC‘s Media Adviser in the Middle East, Karl Schembri. "We talked about the stories we wanted to cover - families affected by violence, as well as children again exposed to trauma and their ensuing nightmares. Two days later, he was killed by an Israeli sniper while peacefully observing the demonstrations. He was killed doing his job: recording his people‘s right to protest for their human rights."
NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland said: "Yasser Murtaja was a civilian and a journalist who was wearing clear press identification while he was filming the demonstrations at the Gaza fence with Israel. He was there because he wanted to document civilians exercising their right to peacefully protest.”
The stories that NRC and Murtaja were supposed to work on focus on the impact of the persistent violence experienced by children in Gaza on their mental health and wellbeing. In Gaza, around 300,000 children are already assessed to be in need of critical psychosocial intervention due to the distress caused by more than a decade of blockade and conflict.
One of the cases documented by NRC is that of 14-year-old Reham. She was attending the Return March in Gaza with her mother, father, sister and two brothers on 30 March when her father was shot in the leg. Reham’s father may now need to have his leg amputated. After the event, Reham has suffered from nightmares and is having difficulty in school.
NRC works to address these psychosocial needs in Gaza through its Better Learning Program, which provides support to students, teachers and caregivers, said the statement.
“The ongoing and unjustifiable border closure and extreme economic deprivation of civilians in Gaza amounts to nothing short of collective punishment. And now the indiscriminate shooting at peaceful protesters on their land – while running away, while waving flags, while praying, while reporting, while giving first aid and while working on their land – is abominable. This cannot be allowed to continue, and those responsible must be held to account,” Egeland said.
M.K.
