Gaza's journalists defiant in face of Israeli targeting

Enclave's media office says 182 journalists have been killed by Israel since the onset of war

Palestinians inspect a vehicle where Al Jazeera TV said its reporter Ismail Al Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza city. Reuters

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Reporters vowed to continue showing the world the realities of war in Gaza, as the number of journalists killed by Israel in the enclave reached 182.

On Monday, Gaza's Government Media Office published a list of all the journalists killed in Israel's assault since October 7 last year in Gaza, expressing outrage over the systematic killing and deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists.

“We call on the international community, organisations, and entities concerned with journalism to hold Israel accountable in international courts for its continuous crimes,” a statement from the office said.

The most recent victims were freelance journalist Nadia Imad Al Sayed and Abdul Rahman Samir Al Tanani, who worked with Zaman Radio, Voice of the People, and other media outlets. They were killed on Saturday.

“We have always condemned and denounced, in the strongest terms, the targeting of Palestinian journalists,” Ismail Al Thawabteh, director of the Government Media Office in Gaza said. “We hold the occupation fully responsible for these crimes and urge international bodies to pressure Israel to stop its genocide and halt the cold-blooded killing of journalists.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the last year of conflict has been the deadliest for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992. Gazan journalists are facing risks such as Israeli air strikes, famine and displacement, it added. The CPJ has documented 131 deaths of journalists since the outbreak of war across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and Lebanon.

Of those, it said the Israeli military had deliberately targeted five cases. It said it is investigating more than 130 other cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries but the work is slow due to the destruction in Gaza. Israel says it does not target journalists.

More than 43,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past year, and most of the enclave's population has been displaced several times. Israel has blocked aid into the strip for almost a month, exacerbating hunger and preventing medical supplies from reaching what is left of its hospitals.

“International institutions and human rights organisations must take a serious stance against the occupation, which continues to shed the blood of journalists without accountability,” journalist Hossam Shabat, in northern Gaza, told The National. “What the occupation failed to achieve at the start of the war, it certainly cannot achieve now, as we are committed to our mission, goals, and principles.”

Israel has prevented foreign journalists from entering the strip, leaving only Palestinians already in the enclave when war broke out to report as the crisis worsens daily. Sami Shihada, 36, a cameraman for TRT Arabic, faced a life-altering injury when a tank missile struck him while he was covering the Israeli invasion of Nuseirat camp in central Gaza in April 2024. “Despite being clearly identified as a journalist wearing a flak jacket marked with ‘Press,’ I was targeted,” Mr Shihada told The National.

“I’m thankful to be alive,” he said, explaining his resolve to continue taking care of his two young daughters despite losing his right leg due to a lack of essential medical supplies and personnel. Still, he needs further medical treatment and is awaiting the reopening of borders to travel and receive care abroad.

After his home in Gaza city was destroyed, he moved to a tent in the Al Mawasi area of Gaza's southern Khan Younis, continuing to work on crutches.

And the work only gets more dangerous. As Israel continues to lay siege to northern Gaza, raiding the area's last standing hospital and forcing people to move south, Tamer Daloul, a correspondent for Al Ghad TV in northern Gaza, insists he is staying to help raise to the voices of those being dehumanised and abused by Israeli troops in the north.

“I, along with my fellow journalists in northern Gaza, have taken it upon ourselves to convey the message and have refused to evacuate to the south, despite repeated targeting,” he told The National. “During the current invasion of Jabalia, the occupation deliberately targets journalists to cover up its crimes against the people and divert attention from the forced displacement it is trying to impose.”

Journalists are deemed civilians in the eyes of international humanitarian law, and as such should be protected from warfare. In Gaza, those who can, wear vests and helmets marked with the word press to distinguish themselves, but the killings have not stopped.

“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth,” said CPJ programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna.

“Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”

The rising death toll of reporters in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank came as the Israeli military last week named six Palestinians in Gaza as Al Jazeera reporters who it said were also members of the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups. The network rejected the accusation as an attempt to silence journalists, and the CPJ has previously called on Israel to stop making unsubstantiated claims that journalists it kills are terrorists.

The network says it has no affiliation with militant groups and has accused Israeli troops of deliberately killing several of its journalists in the Gaza war, including Samer Abu Daqqa and Hamza Al Dahdouh.