One year and climbing: Israel responsible for record journalist death toll

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 Israeli journalists killed in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, were carried out by Israeli forces. CPJ has found that at least five journalists were specifically targeted by Israel for their work.

At least 69 Palestinian journalists have been arrested since the start of the war, 66 by Israel and three by Palestinian authorities. Forty-three were still behind bars as of October 4. On a per capita basis, Israeli authorities now hold the highest number of detained journalists in the world in a given year over the past two decades.

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.

In Israel, press freedom has been curtailed by the passage of a new law that empowers the government to ban media outlets, an increasing number of banned articles, government officials’ anti-press rhetoric, alleged attempts to control news outlets, and attacks on both international and local reporters in the West Bank and Israel, among other threats.

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See CPJ’s full coverage of the Israel-Gaza war