Union calls on Brussels Airport staff not to handle flights from Israel

“If politicians remain deafeningly silent about Gaza, workers will take action,” says Hans Elsen, aviation union representative at ACV Puls. Workers who participate in the boycott, and thus “refuse to cooperate in the normalisation of relations with Israel”, will receive the full support of the union.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine, all flights to Russia were immediately cancelled,” Elsen said. “What is possible in one conflict is apparently not possible in another.”

Earlier in the day, it was confirmed that six journalists had been killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza. Five worked for Al Jazeera.

The deaths were reported by the civil defence in the Gaza Strip and confirmed by the director of Al Shifa Hospital. 

The victims are freelance photojournalist Mohammed Al-Khaldi, Al Jazeera correspondents Anas Al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. 

Al Jazeera described the incident as “a targeted attack” intended to prevent journalists from continuing to report from the scene. The Israeli army reported Al-Sharif's death on X. In the same post, it accused Al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell.

With the death of Al-Sharif, one of the few journalists active in Gaza, there will be even less reporting on the ground, Ralph Dekkers, correspondent in Israel, told Radio 1’s De Ochtend. “Al-Sharif was even active in the north of the Gaza Strip, which is a very difficult area,” he said.

“Now that Israel has plans to take Gaza City, some people are making the connection that they deliberately want less reporting. But it’s hard to say whether there’s a direct link.”