CrossFireArabia
202 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
The last victim was journalist Omar al-Dirawi who was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting his family’s home in al-Zawaideh in central Gaza on Friday morning according to Quds News Network.
The office condemned Israel’s killings of journalists, calling on the international community and rights groups to condemn Israeli crimes and prosecute them in international courts.
“Bloody Year”
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.
Critics accuse Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.
“Deliberately targeting journalists is a war crime under international law. This attack must be independently investigated and the perpetrators must be held to account,” Programme Director at Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Carlos Martinez de la, said.
In a recent report, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) described 2024 as a “particularly bloody year.”
According to the IFJ’s annual report, as of December 10, 2024, 104 journalists have been killed worldwide since January 1, with more than half of them in Gaza.
Seventy-five percent of all reporters killed in the world in 2023 were killed between October 7 and the end of last year.
IFJ Secretary General Anthony Bellanger described 2024 as “one of the worst years” for media professionals. He condemned the “massacre taking place in Palestine before the eyes of the entire world.”
In a separate report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Palestine is the most “dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years.” The report covers data up to December 1.
