Palestinian envoy to UK slams Israel's policy of targeting journalists

Palestinian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Husam Zomlot has said targeting journalists is a "long-held Israeli policy."

"Israel's biggest enemy is the truth," Zomlot said on Sunday in a phone interview with Anadolu Agency following an Israeli attack on one of the news agency's photojournalist.

Israeli forces violently attacked Mustafa Alkharouf while he was on assignment in occupied East Jerusalem.

"I would like to say that this has been a long-held Israeli policy of targeting journalists," the Palestinian ambassador said, adding that Israel has been doing so for decades.

"I think Israel has come out this time clear that it is after every one of us not only in Palestine but worldwide it is after the truth it wants to commit its atrocities in the darkness," Zomlot added.

However, he added, now the world is speaking out against Israel's actions, telling Tel Aviv "you commit your war crimes and crimes against humanity, but not in darkness, we will expose it."

At least 92 journalists have been killed in the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza since October 7, the government media office in the besieged Palestinian enclave said on Sunday.

In a statement, the office said the latest fatalities were journalists Rami Badir and Assem Kamal Musa, who was killed in Israeli raids during the past two days.

Attack during prayer

The attack on Alkharouf occurred as a group of Palestinians gathered to pray in the Wadi al Joz neighbourhood near the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque owing to Israeli army restrictions on weekly Friday prayers at the mosque, which was in their 10th week.

Israeli police, who had set up barricades in the area, first pulled their weapons on Alkharouf, who was covering the news, and then threw him to the ground, beating and kicking him.

Alkharouf suffered severe blows to the face and body and was taken by ambulance to the Makassed Hospital in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli police also attacked cameraman Faiz Abu Ramila, who was with Alkharouf.

The incident came amid the over two-month Israeli attacks on Gaza, killing at least 18,800 Palestinians, mostly children and women, and dozens of journalists, along with hundreds of killings and arrests in the occupied West Bank.