One year ago today, the Palestinian group Hamas launched a massive wave of attacks into southern Israel — an assault that included more than 4,000 rockets fired, the taking of hundreds of hostages, and massacres of civilians. More than 1,100 Israelis were killed within a span of hours.
Israel launched an immediate counterattack on Gaza, which has now continued for a year. According to the United Nations, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The situation is a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale that has challenged the world’s leaders, including in the United States.
But within the broader suffering, on this anniversary day, let us remember one specific group that has been attacked at a level without modern precedent: journalists. Here’s the Committee to Protect Journalists, one of the key international organizations dedicated to promoting the freedom and security of the press:
One year in, Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza has exacted an unprecedented and horrific toll on Palestinian journalists and the region’s media landscape.At least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed — more journalists than have died in the course of any year since CPJ began documenting journalist killings in 1992. All of the killings, except two, were carried out by Israeli forces. CPJ has found that at least five journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work and is investigating at least 10 more cases of deliberate targeting. Two Israeli journalists were killed in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas. [Another three of the killed journalists were Lebanese.]
The killings, along with censorship, arrests, the continued ban on independent media access into Gaza, persistent internet shutdowns, the destruction of media outlets, and displacement of the Gaza media community, have severely restricted reporting on the war and hampered documentation.
One hundred and twenty-eight dead journalists. That is more than twice the next highest recorded total for a year of conflict — the 56 journalists who were killed in Iraq in 2006. (The International Federation for Journalists puts the total at 129. Reporters Sans Frontières says “more than 130.” Gaza government officials count 175.) In addition, at least 69 Palestinian journalists have been arrested by Israel, 43 of whom remain in custody. Most of those detained have been held under an Israeli law that allows for indefinite detention. Israel currently detains more journalists, per capita, than China, Turkey, or any other nation in the world over the past 20 years.
And Palestinian journalists are often the only ones able to tell the world what is happening in Gaza. Israeli restrictions on foreign press have meant that — despite global interest — only a single international reporter has been allowed to enter Gaza and report independently. (CNN’s Clarissa Ward was able to briefly visit a UAE-run field hospital in southern Gaza in December.) All other foreign journalists who’ve entered Gaza have all done so under the escort of the Israeli Defense Forces, who control journalists’ movements. Meanwhile, Arab-run channels like Al Jazeera have been shut down by Israeli raids. And Israeli journalists have faced rising censorship, editorial takeovers, and outright threats from their own government.
Many of those 128 dead journalists were, no doubt, collateral damage from Israel’s widespread bombings. But CJF’s investigations — obviously hampered by their inability to do much work on the ground in Gaza — have found that at least five were intentionally targeted as journalists by the IDF, with investigations ongoing into 10 more incidents. (RSF puts the number targeted for their work as journalists at at least 32.)
