THE International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) backed its affiliate the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate today in condemning the killing of Yasser Murtaja.

Mr Murtaja, a photojournalist working for the Gaza-based news agency Ain Media, was shot dead by an Israeli sniper on Friday while covering the Great Return March rally in which Palestinians demonstrated peacefully for the right of return to homes they were driven from in the “Nakba” (catastrophe) of 1948.

IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger said the union federation “condemns this inadmissible targeting of journalists and press freedom in Gaza by the Israeli forces” and demanded an “open and transparent” investigation.