Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than in any conflict in 30 years, says rights group

The Israeli war on Gaza has killed more journalists over the past year than any other conflict over the past three decades, according to data by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

According to the CPJ, a US-based group monitoring human rights violations against journalists worldwide, at least 128 media workers were killed in the conflict between 7 October 2023 and 4 October 2024. The organisation is also investigating a further 130 cases of suspected killings, detentions or injuries.

The group said it's the deadliest period for journalists since it began its documentation activities in 1992.

The data is conservative compared to the number of journalists reported killed by the Palestinian health ministry, which has estimated that at least 175 were killed between 7 October 2023 and 6 October 2024.

The CPJ said that journalists over the past 12 months have worked under the same dire humanitarian conditions as all civilians in Gaza, including the devastating bombardment of the densely populated enclave that destroyed most of of its buildings, the Israeli siege that led to famine, and the constant displacement of the population. 

"Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price - their lives - for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth," said the CPJ's Carlos Martinez de la Serna.

"Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history's unforgiving gaze."

The targeting of journalists during conflicts is a crime under international law. 

Israel is currently standing trial before the International Court of Justice for its alleged violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, in a case filed by South Africa in December. South Africa's application cited the targeting of Palestinian journalists as part of its evidence.

"Palestinian journalists are being killed at a rate significantly higher than has occurred in any conflict in the past 100 years. In the two months since 7 October 2023, the number of journalists killed already exceeded that of the entirety of World War II," it said in the application. 

In a 2022 report, rights group Euro-Med Monitor documented more than 700 journalists and media workers killed in the Syrian war from 2011 to 2022, an average of over 63 journalists killed per year. This was the highest death toll for any war this century.

Reporters Without Borders documented at least 300 professional and non-professional journalists killed while covering the Syria conflict over a decade.

Euro-Med said that the Iraq war saw the killing of 61 journalists, an average of six journalists per year, while the Yemen war saw the killing of 42 journalists since 2014 - an average of more than five journalists per year. 

Prior to 7 October 2023, the CPJ documented that 20 Palestinian journalists were killed by Israeli army fire in 22 years, but no one had been held accountable for the deaths.

Israel denies that it deliberately targets journalists.