The Paris-based press freedom group’s latest complaint calls on the court in The Hague to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed its second complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

The Paris-based press freedom group’s latest complaint, filed on Friday, calls on the court in The Hague to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists killed in the besieged enclave from October 22 to December 15.

Also on the journalists’ list is the murder of Al Jazeera’s Arab cameraman Samer Abudaqa last week.

“RSF has reasonable grounds to believe that the journalists named in this complaint were victims of attacks amounting to war crimes,” the group said in a statement.

“According to the information collected by RSF, these journalists may have been deliberately targeted as journalists. For this reason, RSF describes these deaths as intentional killings of civilians.”

The RSF filed its first ICC complaint since the start of the war on October 31 over the deaths of seven more journalists. The group says it has confirmed the deaths of 66 Palestinian journalists since the Israeli attack began on October 7. Since then, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.

The other journalists named in the RSF complaint are Asem Al-Barsh, an Al Najah radio journalist who was killed by sniper fire, and his colleague Bilal Jadallah from the Palestinian Press House, who was the victim of a direct rocket attack on his car.

Montaser Al-Sawaf, a cameraman for the Turkish Anadolu Agency, and photojournalist Rushdi Al Siraj were also killed in Israeli airstrikes on their homes.

Hassouna Salim of the Quds News Agency was killed by a rocket after receiving death threats, according to RSF, and photojournalist Sari Mansour died in the same attack.

Al Jazeera’s Abudaqa “appears to have been killed by a precision shot fired from a drone“said the RSF.

The incident, which was also reported by Al Jazeera Media Network decided to turn to the ICCoccurred on December 15, when Abudaqa and Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh reported on the bombing of a school in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip that was used as a shelter for displaced people.

Dahdouh – who lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in one year previous Israeli bombings – was injured in the attack but was able to reach a hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

Rescue teams were unable to immediately reach Abudaqa and others on the scene because they needed permission from the Israeli Defense Forces to use bulldozers to dig through the rubble and reach the site.

When the first responders arrived five hours later, the journalist had already bled to death.

The RSF said it also supports Al Jazeera Media Network’s complaint about the fatal shooting of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, northern the occupied West Bank, on May 11, 2022.

Targeting journalists is a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.

“In light of the massacre of journalists in Gaza and the attacks they appear to be facing, we call on ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to make it clear that he is making it a priority to investigate the crimes committed against journalists in Gaza and prosecute those responsible,” RSF Secretary General Christophe Deloire said in the statement.