A sniper believed to be part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) forces shot and killed her friend, 22-year-old journalism student Shatha al-Sabbagh, a few days ago.
This is the only information we have about the shooting from this article.
we don’t know who the sniper was
we don’t know why the sniper fired
we don’t know who else were present in the area, or whether the sniper fired on more people
Without more information and context, there seems to be a considerable chance that the sniper, whoever he was, did not shoot al-Sabbagh because of being a journalist, but for some other reason (for example, mistaken identification). The outcome is equally bad for the person who died, but the situational picture that one can build from the information looks rather different.
Journalists are being systematically killed in both Gaza and the West Bank. We know for a fact that more journalists have been killed in this conflict than have died in the last 10 years of wars and conflicts. We’re past the point of scrutinizing every detail and nuance of a single journalist’s death before passing a verdict. It is clear that even if they are not intentionally targeting journalists, they certainly don’t seem to care if they happen to keep shooting them.
That is probably true and I do not dispute most of that.
However, I disagree about it being unnecessary to know the details. If it’s about a specific person, there is a need to know where the bullet came from, who had opportunity and who had motive. (Besides the general lack of care about human life in the region.)
You only target journalists when your enemy is the truth.
This is the only information we have about the shooting from this article.
Without more information and context, there seems to be a considerable chance that the sniper, whoever he was, did not shoot al-Sabbagh because of being a journalist, but for some other reason (for example, mistaken identification). The outcome is equally bad for the person who died, but the situational picture that one can build from the information looks rather different.
Journalists are being systematically killed in both Gaza and the West Bank. We know for a fact that more journalists have been killed in this conflict than have died in the last 10 years of wars and conflicts. We’re past the point of scrutinizing every detail and nuance of a single journalist’s death before passing a verdict. It is clear that even if they are not intentionally targeting journalists, they certainly don’t seem to care if they happen to keep shooting them.
That is probably true and I do not dispute most of that.
However, I disagree about it being unnecessary to know the details. If it’s about a specific person, there is a need to know where the bullet came from, who had opportunity and who had motive. (Besides the general lack of care about human life in the region.)
This is the PA, not the IDF.
first casualty of war