Mustafa Bahr, a 33-year-old Palestinian reporter, co-founder of the Palestine Breaking News website, and a father of three, was killed on March 31, 2024, in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, according to his outlet, the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes, and his mother, who spoke to CPJ.
“Our house is located in the Al-Karama area in northern Gaza City. And since the area of our house is subject to Israeli military operations, we were displaced from it to the southern part of the Strip, and some of my sons remained, including Mustafa,” the journalist’s mother, Zainab Bahr, told CPJ, adding that he died near southern Gaza City’s Kuwait roundabout.
Palestine Breaking News website described Bahr as “a prominent reporter and journalist who dedicated his life to conveying the truth and documenting the suffering of the Palestinian people under the ongoing Israeli aggression. His martyrdom represents a great loss for the free Palestinian media, which seeks despite the risks to document crimes and violations against civilians.”
Bahr and several of his brothers founded the website in 2017 and the news agency had an office in their residential building. One of Bahr’s brothers, Abdul Rahman, who also worked for the outlet, was killed on October 6, 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 bombed and whether Bahr was targeted for his work did not immediately receive a response.