【军武次位面】作者：军武菌
Gaza after an air strike
Recently, all kinds of news about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be said to be the focus of attention of the international community, and as the people who report the latest news of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the war correspondents who are stationed at the forefront of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be said to be the "key messengers" who can see these news.
▲ Shouting at the reporter's camera: We will reduce Gaza to ashes
You must know that as early as the beginning of this month, according to a report by the Palestinian Journalists' Association quoted by state media, as of the 6th of this month, 75 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and this situation of continuous death of war correspondents continues. According to foreign media reports, another Al Jazeera reporter has been killed in an Israeli drone strike.
▲ We can understand that the current situation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict depends on the reports of war correspondents on the front line
On the 7th of this month, according to foreign media reports quoted by the global network, a Reuters reporter was killed and a number of reporters were injured due to a deliberate attack by the Israeli military. Considering that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict only broke out in October, at least one journalist is now killed in the smoke of the war every day because of the impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
▲Media reporters working in the Gaza Strip Photo from AFP
▲AFP's office in Gaza was severely damaged
It is not difficult to see that the number of deaths of journalists in the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict is indeed very staggering; you must know that even in World War II, only 68 journalists were killed in the line of duty, and as an armed conflict that broke out this year, and compared with the length of time in World War II, the frequency of deaths of war correspondents in this Palestinian-Israeli conflict is probably far greater than that of World War II! The fact that war correspondents covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can have such a large casualty rate is closely related to the combat strategy currently being implemented by the Israeli army.
▲ Reuters correspondent Issam Abdullah, who died in the line of duty, non-governmental organizations in Western countries are accusing the Israeli army of deliberately targeting civilians and war correspondents
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Media colleagues saw Abu off
Of course, as a profession that needs to collect information at the scene of the news and report to the public, the reporter's own job needs to go to the news scene, and it is the duty of the journalist to report the real situation on the news scene with his own practical actions.
▲ Israeli police told the BBC team not to move, otherwise they would be shot Picture from BBC
War correspondents are no exception, their essential work is to record the ongoing war in words, pictures, videos, etc., but considering the important factor of guns and ammunition "not long eyes", the danger of their work is also very high, after all, unlike ordinary news reports, the situation on the battlefield is complex and ever-changing, and all kinds of valuable information are contained in the process of fighting between the two sides of the battlefield.
▲CCTV reporter Yu Peng followed the Kurdish forces during the Syrian civil war to conduct interviews, during the period when he was filming news reports, bullets flew over his head, and he could be injured or even killed at any time
For example, the world-famous war correspondent Robert Capa, he often went to the forefront of the war to collect news, in the process, Capa took many works that can be called the palace level in the photography industry, such as during the Anti-Japanese War, his works in Taierzhuang can be said to report to the world about the victory of Taierzhuang, this is not over, he also took a famous photo in Wuhan - "Soldiers Defending China", this can be called a vivid photo can be said to be the image of the Chinese military and civilians in the face of the Japanese invaders of perseverance to the world.
▲ Robert Capa's photographic work - "Soldiers Defending China"
And these important news information must be discovered by war correspondents, and in this case, a small dynamic change in the battlefield may be an important news. According to her description, she often needs to go to the front line of Israeli artillery fire to collect news information, and in this process, the experience of "Iron Dome" interceptor missiles whistling in her ears has become her daily routine.
Of course, this is not the end of the story, the kind of sirens that need to hide in a bomb shelter at any time are also commonplace for her, and she has experienced the social disorder caused by the raids of war in Israel and the Gaza Strip, so much so that she even has the ability to listen to the sound of shells to discern whether they are from the Gaza Strip or Israel. It is no exaggeration to say that Chen Huihui is, in a sense, a first-hand witness of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
▲ Chen Huihui, a war correspondent who reported on the front line of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
It is not difficult to see that Chen Huihui is by putting herself in the shoes of the war, showing the audience as much as possible the actual situation on the front line of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the camera, and then by collecting the details of various wars, and then sorting out these fragmented information into news, so that the audience can understand the dynamics of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Similarly, because the theme of modern warfare is still people, and as the direct participants and controllers of battlefield dynamics, soldiers on both sides of the battlefield often know the latest information about battlefield dynamics.
▲ Interviewing soldiers on the front line of the battlefield is also one of the important ways for war correspondents to obtain news information
Civilians who are also in the area of war may also be able to keep up to date with information about the battlefield. However, neither the soldiers of the warring sides nor the civilian population are obliged to inform the general public of these battlefield updates. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary for war correspondents to go to the front line of the war to ask these war witnesses, and perhaps a sentence from the other party can contain important news developments.
For example, Liu Xiaoqian, a war correspondent who has penetrated into the largest rebel in South America, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is also a hard-core ruthless person, during his interview, he got along with the anti-government guerrillas, and also evaded the detection of government fighters with the guerrillas, Liu Xiaoqian learned about the daily life of these guerrillas, and similarly, through communication with them, he let us know about the combat situation of the armed group.
▲In order to obtain news and information, Liu Xiaoqian also had direct communication with South American drug militants, and it is not difficult to see that his courage and psychological quality are very strong
Through Liu Xiaoqian's report, we learned about the daily life of those guerrillas and their thoughts. Therefore, this kind of work on the front lines of the battlefield also requires war correspondents to have some ability to deal with crises, after all, the front line of the battlefield is too dangerous, even experienced war correspondents can inadvertently "overturn", you must know that Robert Capa died during the Vietnam War due to accidentally touching a landmine.
Therefore, war correspondents must undergo security training before taking up their posts, after all, it involves the protection of their own lives. For example, Qiu Yongzheng, a well-known war correspondent on the mainland, has a resume in the army, but before he went to Afghanistan to cover the news, he still conducted special training on battlefield self-protection at the special police academy of the mainland armed police.
Similarly, war correspondents wear special clothing to allow the warring parties to identify themselves when reporting on the battlefield, but this security measure can only be said to allow war correspondents to survive as much as possible on both sides of the firefight. But these measures are largely ineffective when the belligerents specifically target war correspondents, as is the case in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
▲When the famous CCTV host Shui Junyi was a war correspondent during the Iraq War, he once wrote a suicide note for his family, and the danger of his work can be imagined
After all, for the Israeli army, its performance in the early days of the war can only be described as pulling its hips, which surprised the whole world. Its image of a strong military in the world was directly shattered by the "Al-Aqsa flood". At this point, the Israeli government certainly does not want the world's media to report on it in a systematic manner, so the Israeli army has a motive for targeting war correspondents.
After all, public opinion warfare is also an important part of modern warfare, and this is no exception to the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Therefore, in order to ensure the advantage of its public opinion warfare, the Israeli army, which is on the non-moral side, will inevitably take some "control and evaluation" actions in this regard, of course, similar things have been done by the Ukrainian army. In order to ensure that it establishes its own image of justice in the war of public opinion in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Ukrainian army also launched attacks on Russian war correspondents.
▲ On the battlefield, the correspondents are dressed with obvious signs, which can effectively prevent themselves from becoming the target of attacks on both sides of the firefight, but this obvious logo seems to be ineffective for the current Israeli army
In addition, because the Israeli government has been coerced by the extreme right-wing forces, many of the orders issued by it are of the very extreme kind, such as the recent atrocities committed by the Israeli army against prisoners and civilians in the Gaza Strip, many of which have crossed the bottom line of human conscience and caused a very serious humanitarian crisis. If all these things are exposed, it will definitely have a very negative impact on Israel's future development and international status, and of course, from the perspective of the Israeli army, they certainly do not want these shady acts to be known to the whole world.
▲After the outbreak of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, even media such as CNN and AFP have reported on the war atrocities of the Israeli army, and at present, in the war of public opinion, the Israeli army does not have any advantage at all
Under such circumstances, the most efficient way for the Israeli military to keep the world from knowing is to physically eliminate the people who report on these battlefield situations, and this is even recognized by the United States and other Western NGOs, so the war correspondents now covering in the Gaza Strip will naturally attract the "special attention" of the Israeli army, and its manifestation is that the death rate of war correspondents caused by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has now become the highest in the history of war.