Abdul Rahman Bahr, a 23-year-old Palestinian journalist who worked as a photographer and camera operator for the independent Palestine Breaking News website that he also co-founded, was killed on October 6, 2024, by an Israeli drone strike on Gaza City, according to the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes, reports by his employer and other news outlets, and his mother, who spoke to CPJ.
His mother, Zainab Bahr, told CPJ: “The family had left their home in the Al-Karama area, north of Gaza City, since the beginning of the war because it is in a dangerous area and there are Israeli military operations.”
“He went with two relatives to check on the home, which also includes the headquarters of Palestine Breaking News, but the Israeli drone targeted them while they were going, and Abdul Rahman was martyred along with our two relatives,” she added.
She said that Abdul Rahman Bahr was her youngest son and he got engaged just before the war, but his wedding ceremony had been postponed before he was killed.
The Palestine Breaking News website was founded in 2017 by Abdul Rahman and his brothers as an independent and family media institution, which they ran out of an office inside their residential building. Another brother who also worked for the outlet, Mustafa, was killed on March 31, 2024.
CPJ’s email to the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking whether the military knew there was a journalist in the area it attacked and whether Bahr was targeted for his work did not immediately receive a response.