Subscriptions
Read our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
The killing of, and attacks on, Palestinian journalists in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank continues unabated while foreign journalists are banned from the conflict-zone and targeted by counter-terrorism laws.
On 23 August, the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) released its latest report on the “unprecedented toll” the war, ignited by a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, has taken on Gazan journalists.
CPJ’s preliminary investigations revealed at least 115 journalists and media workers were among the more than 41,000 killed since the war began, “making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992,” the report states.
A further 33 journalists were injured, two were missing and 52 arrested, the CPJ said, adding that it is investigating another 350 additional cases of “potential killings, arrest and injuries since October 7” along with numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, going missing and being detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes.
In December 2023, CPJ reported that not only was there a pattern of targeting journalists but also their families and that in at least two cases journalists had received threatening calls from Israel Defence Forces officers and Israeli officials shortly before their family members were killed.
In February, the UN stated a higher death toll among journalists, at 122, and Palestinians in Gaza say to date 171 Journalists have been killed there.
On 31 July, two Gazan journalists working for Al Jazeera, Ismail Al Ghoul and Rami El Refee, were killed in an Israeli airstrike when there was no fighting taking place. Al Jazeera accused Israel of assassinating them.
The Qatari-based network has lost a number of its journalists in Gaza following Israeli attacks and has been banned from reporting in the country while its staff in the West Bank have faced intimidation.
Israel banned Al Jazeera following the passing of its ‘Law Preventing a Foreign Broadcaster from Harming National Security’, which could also affect other foreign media outlets based in the country.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel unsuccessfully tried to overturn a ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza to report independently by challenging it at Israel’s Supreme Court.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported on 18 August that “freelance reporter Ibrahim Muhareb was killed and his colleague Salma al-Qaddoumi was wounded when an Israeli tank deliberately fired on a group of identifiable journalists, according to witnesses and video footage.”
RSF has filed three complaints with the International Criminal Court accusing Israeli forces of committing war crimes against journalists since 7 October 2023.
The situation for Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, while better than Gaza, is still bad, with the RSF explaining: “In the West Bank, where journalists were already the victims of abuses by both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupying forces, Israeli pressure has intensified since 7 October, with an increase in arrests of reporters and obstructions to their work.”
Omar Nazzal, a board member of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, told Byline Times that there was a general feeling among journalists that the Israelis were pushing for a new front to open in the West Bank.
“The increased attacks by Israeli settlers, supported by soldiers, as they drive Palestinian communities out, are a sign that Israel wants to rid the territory of Palestinians for good,” he said.
Riyad al-Maliki, the advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the