by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG – THE South African Communist Party (SACP) has strongly condemned the killing of four Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, describing it as part of an ongoing “genocidal” campaign by Israel.
In a statement on Wednesday, the party accused what it termed the “apartheid Israeli settler regime” of deliberately targeting journalists to suppress coverage of atrocities.
The incident, which occurred on Sunday night near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, claimed the lives of 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif, along with colleagues Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohammed Noufal.
Seven people were killed in the strike.
Citing figures since the outbreak of hostilities on 7 October 2023, the SACP said around 270 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel, alongside over 60,000 Palestinians, including patients in hospitals, women, children, and the elderly.
The party also blamed the United States for enabling the attacks through what it called “military, economic and propaganda support” for Israel. It accused Israel of destroying Gaza’s healthcare facilities, schools, places of worship, and vital infrastructure, leading to starvation and humanitarian collapse.
“The apartheid regime’s murder of journalists in Gaza, along with the genocide, occurs with the full support of the United States imperialist regime,” the statement read.
The SACP reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and called for global working-class unity and progressive forces to mobilise in support of Palestine’s liberation from “genocide, land dispossession, colonial occupation and apartheid.”
– CAJ News
