• Bangladeshi journalists form ‘silent human chain’ to protest killings of journalists in Gaza

DHAKA, Bangladesh 

Thousands of people marched in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Friday, demanding urgent international action to stop Israeli atrocities and starvation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel has killed nearly 63,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The offensive has devastated the enclave, leaving much of it uninhabitable and pushing its population toward famine.

Protesters gathered in front of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque before the rally, calling on the UN to ensure media access to Gaza “so that the world can know what is happening at the hands of Israel” in the besieged territory.

Credit: BJI.Official, Facebook

“Gaza is our united failure,” said Jahidul Islam, president of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, as he read out the Gaza declaration during the protest.

The declaration urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to impose sanctions on Israel, advised Bangladesh’s interim government against any agreement or trade with Israeli companies, and called for life-saving aid to be shipped to Gaza. It also pressed for Palestine and Al-Aqsa to be included in school textbooks across Bangladesh.

Separately, journalists across the country staged a “silent human chain” to protest the repeated killings of reporters in Gaza.

Journalists in Dhaka, Chittagong, and other cities stood shoulder-to-shoulder for half an hour, holding placards that read “Journalism is not a crime,” “Journalists are not targets,” “Stop killing journalists,” and “In solidarity with journalists in Gaza.”

“The Israeli armed forces must stop targeting journalists in Gaza. Journalists are civilians fulfilling their professional duty of reporting from conflict zones. They must not be turned into victims,” said a statement by Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media (BJIM).

Israel has killed 246 journalists in Gaza since October 2023.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on the enclave.