Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war

As of December 1, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 249 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Israel, and Iran since the Israel-Gaza war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

In addition, CPJ is investigating more than 130 additional cases of potential journalists killings, arrests, and injuries, and damage to media offices and homes, cases that remain difficult to document and verify amid what human rights organizations and United Nations experts deem a genocide.

Journalists in Gaza face extreme, often fatal, risks as they try to cover the genocide, including relentless Israeli airstrikes, the destruction of most of the territory’s infrastructure, the forced displacement of 90% of Gaza’s population, trauma, and widespread famine.

“Since October 7, 2023, Palestinian journalists have been slaughtered with impunity, while the world watches. This is a direct, unprecedented assault on press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah. “Journalists cannot carry out their work — let alone survive — while being deliberately starved and denied life-saving aid. Israel must allow humanitarians, international media, and human rights investigators into Gaza at once.”

Targeted murder of journalists

Journalists are civilians and protected by international law. Deliberately targeting civilians constitutes a war crime.

To date, CPJ has determined that a total of 59 journalists and media workers were directly targeted and killed by Israeli forces, cases that CPJ classifies as murders.

The 42 journalists murdered in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen are: Ahmad Qalaja, Ahmed Mansour, Anas al-Sharif, Ayman Al Gedi, Fadi Hassouna, Faisal Abu Al Qumsan, Ghassan Najjar, Hamza Al Dahdouh, Hilmi al-Faqaawi, Hossam Shabat, Ibrahim Zaher, Ismail Al Ghoul, Ismail Baddah, Issam Abdallah, Mahmoud Islim Al-Basos, Moamen Aliwa, Mohammad al-Khaldi, Mohammed Al-Ladaa, Mohammed Noufal, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Mustafa Thuraya, Nima Rajabpour, Rami Al Refee, Suleiman Hajjaj, Wissam Kassem, Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh, Abbas al-Dailami, Youssef Shams al-Din al-Bahri, Mohammed al-Omeisi, Abdullah al-Harazi, Jamal al-Adhi, Bashir Hussein Ahsan Dablan, Abdulqawi Mohammed Saleh al-Asfour, Abdo Taher Musleh al-Saadi, Lutf Ahmed Nasser Hadiyan, Qais Abdo Ahmed al-Naqeeb, Mohammed Ali Hamoud al-Dawi, Faris Abdo Ali al-Rumaisa, Abdulrahman Mohammed Mohammed Jaman, Amal Mohammed Ghaleb al-Manakhi, Abdullah Mahdi Abdullah al-Bahri, and Sami Mohammed Hussein al-Zaidi. 

The 17 media workers in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen are Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, Masoumeh Azimi, Mohammed Reda Ibrahim, Murad Halboub al-Faqih, Ali Naji al-Shara’i, Ali Mohammed Ahmed al-Faqih, Arif Ali Abdo al-Samhi, Mohammed Hamoud Ahmed al-Matari, Abdul Wali Abdo Hussein al-Najjar, Abdul Aziz Saleh Ahmed Shas, Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed al-Zakri, Zuhair Ahmed Mohammed al-Zakri, Essam Ahmed Murshid al-Hashidi, Salim Abdullah Abdo Ahmed al-Watiri, Mohammed Abdo Yahya al-Sanfi, Mohammed Al-Azzi Ghaleb al-Harazi, and Ali Mohammed al-Aqel.

CPJ continues to investigate at least 20 other cases that show signs of possible targeting.

In addition to physical attacks, journalists—especially Palestinians—have faced coordinated smear campaigns and efforts to delegitimize their work. Israeli officials, pro-government media, and online networks have repeatedly labeled journalists as “terrorists” or accused them of acting on behalf of Hamas, often without evidence. These efforts aim to justify attacks on press workers and erode international sympathy for those documenting the war’s realities. These campaign of discreditation not only endangers journalists’ lives but also seeks to undermine the documentation of war crimes and genocide by discrediting those bearing witness.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials have repeatedly told media outlets that the army does not deliberately target journalists. Shortly after the war started, the IDF also told news agencies that it could not guarantee the safety of journalists operating in Gaza. CPJ has called for an end to the longstanding pattern of impunity in cases of journalists killed by the IDF.    

The list of killed journalists documented in our database includes names based on information obtained from CPJ’s sources in the region and media reports. It includes all journalists* involved in news-gathering activity. It is not always immediately clear whether all of these journalists were covering the conflict at the time of their deaths, but CPJ has included them in its count as it investigates their circumstances.

Definitions and methodology

*Definition of a journalist: CPJ defines journalists as people who regularly cover news or comment on public affairs through any medium to report or share fact-based information with an audience. This definition covers those working for a broad range of publicly and privately funded news outlets, as well as freelancers. In the cases CPJ has documented, multiple sources have found no evidence to date that any journalist was engaged in militant activity.

CPJ’s global database of killed journalists and media workers includes only those confirmed to have been killed in connection with their work or where it is unclear whether their death was work-related (motive unconfirmed.) Our research is ongoing and we remove names from our list if we determine that a person either was incorrectly identified as a journalist or could not have been working at the time of their death.    

Clarifications and corrections:

CPJ removed a Palestinian man, Mohamed Khaireddine, from its database. Khaireddine was previously identified as a journalist, but his family later clarified that he was neither a journalist nor a media support worker.  

CPJ removed seven other Palestinian journalists from its database that were found not to be journalists or media workers: Bahaa Okasha, Salma Mkhaimar, Ahmed Fatima, Mohamed Al Jaja, Assaad Shamallakh, Mohamed Fayez Abu Matar, and Abdullah Darwish. 

CPJ removed two Israeli journalists, Shai Regev and Ayelet Arnin, from its database after their outlets confirmed that the journalists were not on assignment to cover the music festival, nor were they in a position to begin reporting on the attack by Hamas militants that killed them on October 7. CPJ’s global database of killed journalists includes only those who have been killed in connection with their work or where there is still some doubt that their death was work-related.

After receiving reports that Palestinian journalist and presenter Alaa Taher Al-Hassanat may have survived the attack thought to have killed her, CPJ has removed her name from its database pending further investigation.

On February 6, 2024, Canadian-Palestinian journalist Mansour Shouman was found alive after being reported missing more than two weeks before. We have removed him from our list of missing journalists.

According to CPJ’s research, Israeli journalist Oded Lifschitz wasn’t working when he was taken as a hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023. CPJ removed his name from the list of missing journalists after contacting the family.