#jonathan conricus

by Debbie Weiss

The Committee to Protect Journalists has launched a full review of its Gaza journalist casualty database after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad published obituaries identifying some of those previously listed as journalists as combatants — raising pointed questions about how one of the war’s most cited press-freedom tallies was compiled.

The New York-based watchdog said last week it had removed eight names from its database after they were established to be Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and removed 12 others for separate reasons. CPJ said the full review of all names on its list of journalists and media workers killed during the Israel-Hamas war is expected to be completed in July.

As of June 25, CPJ’s database listed 209 journalists and media workers killed by Israel in Gaza and in Israeli detention centers since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 were taken hostage. The organization has described the conflict as the deadliest for journalists since it began tracking press deaths more than three decades ago — a claim now under scrutiny.

Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former IDF international spokesperson, accused CPJ of failing to exercise sufficient scrutiny of its Gaza list despite what he described as clear evidence from the outset of the war that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were exploiting journalistic cover for military purposes.

CPJ “willingly and knowingly participated in an ongoing delegitimization effort against Israel by making a conscious decision not to undertake any due diligence or scrutiny in their lists and their description of so-called media workers in Gaza,” Conricus told The Algemeiner.

He said the failure came despite what he called “obvious evidence” that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were “violating the special and protected status of journalists” by deploying terrorists in press vests and other press insignia to gain protection.

Dave Smith EXPLODES in Rage When IDF Spokesman Fact-Checks Him on Air!

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BEIRUT | The Latest: Israel says downed Syrian plane was moving fast

BEIRUT — The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local): 4:15 p.m.

The Israeli military says the Syrian plane it shot down departed from the Syrian T4 air base, which Israel is believed to have attacked earlier this year.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus says Tuesday that the plane flew toward Israel at “relatively high speed” before breaching the country’s airspace. He said it was unknown if the plane deliberately crossed into Israel nor what happened to its pilot. The plane crashed in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights, he said.

He said the increased activity near Israel’s frontier with Syria put the military on “elevated alert” and prompted Israel to issue a number of warnings through different channels to ensure a 1974 agreement which sets out a demilitarized zone along the shared Syria-Israel frontier would not be violated ___ 2:45 p.m.

The Israeli military says it has shot down a Syrian fighter jet that entered its airspace.

The military says it monitored the advance of the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet Tuesday and shot it down with a pair of Patriot missiles after it entered Israeli airspace by about two kilometers.

It is only the second such incident along the border in 30 years. The military says that there had been an increase in the internal fighting in Syria since the morning hours, including an increase in the activity of the Syrian Air Force.

It said the Israeli military was on high alert and would continue to protect its territory. ___ 2:35 p.m.

Syrian state media says government forces have reached the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after capturing territory from rebels and Islamic State militants.

Al-Ikhbariya TV on Tuesday broadcast footage from the fence demarcating the U.N. buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces inside the Golan Heights.

The camera showed an Israeli observation post 400 meters (440 yards) away.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. The U.N. deployed a peacekeeping force between the two sides in 1974.

It is the first time government forces have taken up positions along the frontier since an uprising against President Bashar Assad swept through the country in 2011. Islamic State militants later seized territory from rebels along the frontier region.