Zvi Yehezkeli, defined as a “senior commentator” on the i24news news channel, calls for murdering all journalists in the Gaza Strip, because their broadcasts from there serve the Hamas terror organization and harm Israeli Hasbara.
Yehezkeli’s murderous statement is unacceptable not only morally but also legally, both under Israeli law that prohibits murder and under international law that defines assassination of journalists as a war crime.
According to international law, a journalist is a legitimate military target only if he is actually engaged in military activity (for example, directing forces or directing fire), and even then only after a warning. But Yehezkeli does not claim at all that the journalists are carrying out military activity. In his view, they are condemned to death only because they broadcast from the Strip images that damage Israel’s image.
According to Yehezkeli, the killing of journalists is a sign that the perception that journalists in the Strip should be eliminated has infiltrated the army and government: “This is an understanding in Israel of how much damage those who transmitted the pictures of hunger and all of Hamas’s one side did […] how much psychological damage those journalists in quotation marks, terrorist journalists, or you can call them Nukhba journalists, how much damage they did to Israel.”
He went on to complain that “we are almost not present in the psychological arena” and added “if Israel already decides to eliminate journalists then better late than never. Just to be clear, these are journalists who hide in hospitals, who set up command centers there, who broadcast to the world a completely distorted picture, still serving Hamas’s interests”
“Israel did well to eliminate them. In my view, it was too late, and there are still many, many more who continue to cause image and perceptional damage in a battle that, unfortunately, we are not particularly excelling in.”
Yehezkeli said these things following the killing of five journalists by the IDF in a strike at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the Strip. Yehezkeli said in an i24news broadcast that those journalists were “Nukhba in every respect” and “the mouthpiece of Hamas’s military wing,” despite this being a complete lie.
In the past, Israel claimed it assassinated journalists because they were Hamas military operatives, as happened recently after the assassination of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif: The IDF spokesman claimed (based on outdated documents) that al-Sharif was an active Hamas member and “promoted rocket trajectories.” This was not the case after the killing of the five journalists in Khan Yunis.
An Israeli tank fired shells and killed journalists Hosam al-Masri who worked with the international news agency Reuters; Mariam Abu Dakka who worked with the international news agency AP; Mohammed Salama who worked with the Qatari network Al Jazeera (whose broadcasts are banned in Israel on the claim that it supports terror); and Moaz Abu Taha and Ahmed Abu Aziz.
The incident drew harsh reactions worldwide, including from U.S. President Donald Trump. The IDF spokesperson issued a statement that the shooting was not intentional and that “the Chief of Staff instructed to conduct an immediate investigation – to understand the circumstances of the incident and how it happened. We will present our findings with maximum transparency.” The office of indicted prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also published a statement (in English), according to which “Israel deeply regrets the tragic accident. Israel appreciates the work of journalists, medical teams and all civilians. The army is conducting a thorough investigation.”
Yehezkeli, on the other hand, determined that these were “Nukhba journalists” and added a delusional statement according to which “these are journalists who hide in hospitals, who set up command centers there.”
This is not the first time Yehezkeli has called for committing war crimes. In the past, he did so on Channel 13 (formerly Channel 10), where he became a well-known journalist. Over the years, he became radicalized and turned into an extreme right-wing man, promoting racist and fundamentalist positions in a Jewish vein.
In 2024, Yehezkeli left Channel 13 after 22 years, after receiving an offer to move to work at the new i24news news channel, owned by French-Jewish businessman Patrick Drahi. The channel hired Yehezkeli’s services, according to publications, for a huge salary of 120,000 shekels (approx. 35,000 dollars) per month, despite – or because of – his extreme positions.
In October 2023, a few weeks after the massacre carried out by Hamas in the south, Yehezkeli called for committing genocide in a broadcast on Channel 13, when he said that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians should be “eliminated.” Program host Udi Segal expressed weak opposition, Yehezkeli was forced to caveat and then, following the public criticism that arose, to retract his remarks (which are similar to Hamas’s view, according to which every Israeli man is a potential soldier)..
Only after leaving channel 13 did he say in an interview with “Yedioth Ahronoth” that he meant every word: “When I said on air that a hundred thousand Gazans should be taken down? I understand it’s hard for you to hear these things, but only I can understand what the effect of a hundred thousand dead in Gaza is. Every Gazan who is connected to Hamas, as far as I’m concerned, is Hamas” (It should be noted that according to some estimates, Israel indeed killed a hundred thousand Gazans in the Strip during the war, so even Yehezkeli’s jihadist prediction did not materialize).
Yehezkeli called for committing crimes even before the October 7 massacre that led to radicalization in Israeli society and brought forth a murderous “revenge discourse.” For example, in 2022 he called for kidnapping children of senior Hamas officials in order to use them as a bargaining chip for returning bodies of soldiers held by the terror organization.
Yehezkeli even claimed in the past that Israel not only assassinates journalists in the Gaza Strip but also their family members. On October 26, 2023, he claimed in a live broadcast that the IDF intentionally first hit the family members of Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh. The IDF spokesman denied the claim and following an inquiry by “The Seventh Eye,” Yehezkeli retracted the statement.
Now, on i24news, Yehezkeli can openly call for committing crimes without apologizing. Program host Miri Michaeli expressed no protest whatsoever against the call for murder. No response to the statements has yet been received from the channel.
Either way, despite Yehezkeli calling for committing crimes and war crimes, he is still considered a legitimate journalist in Israel, receives a huge salary on a news channel, gets interviews in mainstream media, publishes books, and gives popular lectures (also to children).
Below is a transcript of Yehezkeli’s words on i24news:
“It may be that the message in targeting journalists, again, in quotation marks, these are ‘Nukhba’ operatives in every sense, is an understanding in Israel of how much damage was caused by those who transmitted the images of hunger and Hamas’s one-sided narrative, who continued the legacy of Yahya Sinwar in so-called journalism. Today it was a Palestinian working for Reuters, an international agency. So just think how much cognitive and image damage those so-called journalists, terrorist journalists, or one could call them Nukhba journalists, have inflicted on Israel.
“For two years now, those journalists have essentially shaped the image and the narrative about Gaza, part of which enabled the war, and afterward enabled Hamas’s legitimacy.
“One could say that we are almost absent from the cognitive battlefield, unfortunately. And if Israel already decides to eliminate the journalists, then better late than never.
“And just to be clear, these are journalists hiding in hospitals, setting up command centers there, broadcasting to the world a completely false picture, serving Hamas’s interests. One could say that the tip of Hamas’s spear is made up of those Nukhba journalists. And therefore Israel did well to eliminate them. In my view, it was too late, and there are still many, many more who continue to cause image and perceptional damage in a battle that, unfortunately, we are not particularly excelling in.”
The Article was first published in Hebrew on august 19
