Funeral held for Al Jazeera’s Wishah killed in Israeli strike in Gaza

More than 260 journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the start of the genocide in October 2023.Mourners have gathered in central Gaza for the funeral of Mohammed Wishah, an Al Jazeera journalist killed in an Israeli drone strike, as the death toll among media workers continues to rise during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.Dozens of relatives, friends and colleagues joined the procession on Thursday. The ceremony began at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where mourners paid their final respects before carrying Wishah’s body on their shoulders to the Bureij refugee camp.Funeral prayers were held at the Grand Mosque before a burial in line with his wishes.During the ceremony, mourners placed Wishah’s body at the very spot where he had once stood to deliver live reports for Al Jazeera Mubasher, often covering the latest Israeli attacks and the plight of the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.At a news conference held during the funeral, Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, said the killing formed part of a wider pattern.“The assassination of Wishah is a link in a chain of ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian journalistic family, within the framework of a deliberate and intentional policy of targeting with premeditation and intent,” he said.He added that 262 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023, warning that the targeting of reporters aims to silence witnesses.“The targeting of journalists aims to silence the Palestinian voice, obscure the truth and prevent the transmission of images of crimes to the world,” he said.