Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and analyst, said Israel does not want the world to see what is happening in Gaza.

“On the one hand, they’re not allowing international journalists, and on the other hand, they’re assassinating those journalists who are there,” Buttu told Al Jazeera. “And then, they’re smearing those journalists who are there and somehow labelling them as targets.”

Buttu stressed that, under international law, people can only be considered legitimate targets in war if they are combatants who engage in fighting – accusing someone of being affiliated with an armed group, whether true or not, does not make them a legitimate target.

She added that Israel is “turning international law on its head” by labelling people as members of Hezbollah and Hamas to justify their killing.