I still remember the day Shireen Abu Akleh was martyred. My mother called me crying. She had grown up watching Shireen, who was an invited guest into her home every day while she lived in Palestine. I remember when my mom called me after Israel dropped their first bomb in Gaza, the same tears, a different type of violence. And yesterday, my mom called me again to talk about Anas. Anas al-Sharif’s voice was one I’ve come to intimately know over the last two years, and one we will never hear again. Because, like the almost 300 journalists in Gaza that Israel has killed, Anas represented the truth. And truth is a threat to Israel.

For 22 months, the international community has watched Israel systematically murder journalists and called it acceptable losses in a just war. Nearly 300 media workers have been killed, the deadliest conflict for journalists in recorded history. Yet the world’s response has been to write strongly worded letters while shipping more weapons. Where are the sanctions that followed Russia’s invasion? Where are the war crimes tribunals that prosecuted Rwandan generals? Where is the global media solidarity that should transcend borders and politics? Apparently that only exists when the victims are not Palestinian.

Under Article 79 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, journalists are explicitly protected as civilians in armed conflict zones. Intentionally directing attacks against civilians, including journalists, constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and amounts to grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The law is clear. The crime is obvious. But, Israel has transformed every Palestinian journalist into a “legitimate target” by simply calling them terrorists first.