The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) confirmed that around 79 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October.
The CPJ is investigating reports of journalists killed, injured, arrested, or missing in the war, including those injured as violence extended to neighbouring Lebanon.
Key Findings
According to CPJ investigations as of 8 January, at least 79 journalists are among a total of over 23,000 people killed since the war began, including more than 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 in Israel.
As per the findings, 72 Palestinians, four Israelis, and three Lebanese were among the journalists killed. Further, 16 journalists were injured, three others were reported missing, and 21 were arrested.
There were also several assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members.
The CPJ is examining several “unconfirmed reports” of more journalists being killed, missing, jailed, injured, or threatened, as well as damage to media buildings and journalists’ homes.
“CPJ emphasises that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties,” asserted Sherif Mansour, the organization’s Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator.
“Journalists across the region are making great sacrifices to cover this heartbreaking conflict,” Mansour said. “Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats.”
The National Press Club pressed US government officials meeting with the Israeli government to “raise the issue of journalist safety for the protection of all journalists working in the field.”
As of January 8, CPJ’s investigations showed at least 79 journalists and media workers were among the more than 23,000 killed since the #Israel #Gaza war began on October 7.
— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) January 8, 2024
Journalists are #NotATarget. https://t.co/h4CZa1iae2
Israel Targeting Journalists in Gaza
On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle killed two more journalists, including Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, who had previously lost his wife and other family members to Israeli airstrikes.
Palestinian journalist Anan Quzmar claimed that media workers are being targeted to “shut down the coverage” of Israeli atrocities.
According to Quzmar, a volunteer with the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the union has evidence that majority of the journalists killed “were deliberately and specifically targeted by surgical Israeli strikes against them.”
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reuters, and AFP investigated the 13 October strike in southern Lebanon that killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists and found that the attack was likely a deliberate attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
“Israel says it does not target journalists. It needs to explain whether it used one of its drones for a precision attack on these two journalists and why it launched strikes on those like Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was clearly wearing press insignia and away from direct fighting,” Mansour argued.
CPJ further discovered that, in addition to the Israeli military’s systematic killing of Palestinian journalists, which has been continuing for over 20 years, Israel has started targeting journalists’ families.
In November, Reporters Without Borders asked the International Criminal Court to investigate “war crimes committed against journalists during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza.”
Advocacy groups believe that the IDF is seeking to restrict media coverage of the Gaza genocide by killing journalists in violation of international law.