Family members and colleagues mourn over the body of a journalist killed during Israeli bombardment in the southern Gaza Strip on December 16, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed its second complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli war crimes against Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip.

The Paris-based press freedom group filed the lawsuit on Friday, asking the court in the Hague to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists who were killed in Gaza from October 22 to December 15.

The group said in a statement that according to the information it collected, these journalists may have been deliberately targeted as journalists.

RSF has reasonable grounds to believe that the journalists named in this complaint were the victims of attacks amounting to war crimes, the group said in a statement.

This is the second lawsuit the RSF filed with the court since Israel launched its war on Gaza on Oct.7. The first complaint was for the death of seven other journalists in Gaza.

The group says it has confirmed the deaths of 66 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since the initiation of the Iraseli war against Gazans in early October.

RSF urged ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to investigate not only the recent deaths but all 66 Palestinian journalists killed so far.

It emphasizes the importance of clarifying the crimes committed against journalists in the Palestinian territory and prosecuting those responsible.

Targeting journalists is considered a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also said on Thursday that 68 media workers have been killed in the 10 weeks of fighting - 61 of them Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese.

More journalists have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.

Israel is also accused of committing war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. Since the regime’s military has started its relentless bombardment of the enclave, more than 20,000 people have been killed, some 8000 of whom are children.

Prosecutor Karim Khan said last month that his office has received a referral from five countries to investigate Israel’s war crimes in the Palestinian territories. South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti submitted the referral, according to Khan.