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.

The Israeli army says it does not intentionally fire on journalists and will investigate Mr Murtaja’s death — unlike the deaths of 30 other unarmed Palestinians killed at the border on consecutive Fridays.

Mr Bellanger said that killing journalists was a war crime under international law.

The International Criminal Court suggested on Sunday that the recent massacres in Gaza could constitute war crimes but named Hamas alongside Israel as a potential perpetrator, despite the violence coming exclusively from the Israeli military.