Israel Kills Al Jazeera Journalist & Beloved Ecologist: 2 Articles

(1/2) Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah killed in Israeli attack in Gaza

Israeli strikes kill a beloved ecologist in Lebanon and a journalist in Gaza.

Reposted from Al Jazeera, June 20, 2026

Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Wishah has been killed in an Israeli air attack on a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

He was among two people killed, with at least one other Palestinian injured in Saturday’s (June 20) raid, according to Al Jazeera colleagues on the ground.

In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network said it “condemns the deliberate killing” of the Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent, adding that he is the 12th Al Jazeera media worker to be killed in Gaza since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023.

Al Jazeera “renews its call on the international community and legal institutions to take urgent, practical measures to hold the Israeli officials involved in these appalling crimes accountable,” the statement added. 

The strike in Bureij camp increased the total number of people killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza on Saturday to 10.

Among the other casualties were four family members, including two children, whose home was struck in central Gaza City.

A man was killed in an attack to the north of Gaza City, while a woman was killed by Israeli fire in the northern Beit Lahia area, according to our colleagues.

Israeli attacks also happened near groups of people in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and western Khan Younis, killing at least one person and injuring others.

Ahmed Wishah is the brother of Mohammed Wishah, who was killed on April 8 by Israeli shelling while traveling in his vehicle, according to Palestinian civil defense authorities.

The Israeli military claimed the following day, without providing any evidence, that it killed him because he was a “key terrorist in Hamas’ rocket and weapons production headquarters”.

Al Jazeera condemned Mohammed Wishah’s killing at the time as part of Israel’s “systematic policy of targeting journalists and silencing the voice of truth”.

In a statement to AFP on Saturday, an Israeli military spokesman made a similar allegation about Ahmed Wishah, accusing him, without providing evidence, of being a “Hamas terrorist”.

But in a statement, Al Jazeera refuted that accusation as “baseless”, saying that the Israeli military has “relentlessly spread false allegations” against its staff to “justify its crimes against Al Jazeera journalists and cameramen in Gaza”.

“These attempts deceive no one and cannot obscure the truth witnessed by the world,” the media network said, calling it a “smear campaign”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has previously condemned Israel’s “smearing of killed Palestinian journalists”, with the press freedom group saying it had documented a pattern of Israel “accusing journalists of being terrorists without producing credible evidence”.

In its statement Saturday, Al Jazeera said it is determined “to take every available legal measure to prosecute the perpetrators” of the “crimes” against its staff in Gaza. It added that it remains committed to covering events in the enclave despite the Israeli military’s “attempts to silence the voice of truth”.

The CPJ reports that at least 260 Palestinian journalists have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.

Gaza’s health ministry reported on Saturday that since Israel’s genocidal war began, 73,018 people have been killed and 173,273 wounded.

Since the ‘ceasefire’ was announced last October, Israeli attacks have killed 1,007 and injured 3,165 people.

(2/2) Israeli attack kills famed turtle sanctuary ecologist in Lebanon

Mona Khalil led a decades-long effort to protect a nesting site for turtles near her home in the south of the country.

By Oliver Holmes, Reposted from The Guardian, June 20, 2026

The Lebanese marine activist Mona Khalil, who became a beloved figure in the country for a decades-long effort to protect a nesting site for turtles near her home, has died from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike.

Khalil, 76, ran a sanctuary called the Orange House Project near the Mediterranean city of Tyre. She hosted volunteers in her house to clean and monitor a mile-long beach and welcomed tourists to stay and learn about conservation.

An Israeli airstrike hit her house earlier this month, severely wounding Khalil, who was moved to an intensive-care unit in Beirut before succumbing to her injuries on Friday, according to friends. Her assistant, an Ethiopian woman, suffered burns but was recovering.

During the Lebanese civil war of 1975-90, Khalil moved to the Netherlands. She returned to her family’s land in 1999, where she had a chance encounter one evening with a turtle digging a nest in the sand on the beach.

Khalil painted the house orange to match the national colour of the Netherlands, which she said had given her refuge during a time of need, and started a protection and ecotourism project for loggerhead and green sea turtles that nest along Lebanon’s southern coast.

Foreign tourists had to coordinate their trip with the Lebanese military, as the bed and breakfast sat on land that Israel had repeatedly invaded and occupied. Those who managed to get permission would stay in Khalil’s idyllic home, with its flower-lined courtyard often filled with rescued dogs and cats. It is just a short walk through banana groves to the beach.

Regular power cuts and a lack of air-conditioning meant some visitors left unfavourable online reviews, although most were glowing as Khalil provided what other B&Bs could not – a chance to witness and help hatching turtles and to take part in protecting their vulnerable populations.

Khalil’s marine conservation efforts were initially resented by some local people, including property developers and fishers who used dynamite fishing, a practice she successfully fought against. Her house was also hit by Israeli bombardment during the 2006 war with Hezbollah.

Despite Israel’s continued invasions, Khalil remained in her home. In a 2017 interview, she said she had not lost hope in turtle conservation and would continue indefinitely. “As long as God gives me life,” she said.

The Lebanese wildlife conservation group Green Southerners mourned the loss of an environmental campaigner they said had inspired generations of Lebanese to value and protect their ecosystems.

“Her work made her one of Lebanon’s most respected voices for marine conservation and biodiversity protection,” the group said in a statement.

“Green Southerners strongly condemns the attack that claimed Mona Khalil’s life and injured her assistant. The strike targeted a site that had long been known for environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, and public awareness. Her death stands as a stark reminder of the devastating toll that Israeli attacks continue to exact on civilians, environmental defenders, and the natural heritage they sought to protect.”

Live Love Beirut, an environment-focused social enterprise group, said Khalil will be “remembered through an incredible legacy”.

“Her life was selfless and impactful,” the group said. “May she rest in peace, and may the work she cared for so deeply continue for generations to come.”