Report: Record Number of Journalists Killed in Gaza

“In war, truth is the first casualty,” said Aeschylus. In the modern era, this includes the journalists devoted to uncovering that truth. On Aug. 22, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that at least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since hostilities began. This is the highest death toll in any conflict since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992. 

That number will likely expand in the coming weeks. The group is still investigating nearly 350 additional cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries of journalists and media workers in Gaza. These numbers dwarf those of much larger and longer conflicts. During all of World War II, 69 reporters were killed. In the Korean War, 17. Sixty-three were killed in Vietnam. In the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in this century, 65 and 282. 

The most recent deaths in Gaza investigated by the CPJ occurred on July 31. Ismail al-Ghoul, a 27-year-old Palestinian journalist, and Rami al-Refee, a 27-year-old Palestinian cameraman, were freelancing for Al Jazeera when Israeli missiles hit a car they were using in the Al Shatei camp near Gaza City. According to Al Jazeera, al-Ghoul and al-Refee had been investigating the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, and had been parked in front of his home for five minutes, when they were killed. In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network called the attack by Israeli forces “a cold-blooded assassination” and pledged to “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes” and that it “stands in unwavering solidarity with all journalists in Gaza.” 

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Aug. 1 that it had killed al-Ghoul in an airstrike, labeling him a member of Hamas’ military wing and claiming that “his activities in the field were a vital part of Hamas’ military activity.” The IDF claimed it was justified because al-Ghoul “was actively involved in recording and publicizing attacks against IDF troops.” Al Jazeera countered that allegations were made without evidence and “highlights Israel’s long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes.”

These cases, like so many others, have been ignored by most western media, but have not escaped the attention of Irene Khan, the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. “The Israeli military seems to be making accusations without any substantive evidence as a license to kill journalists, which is in total contravention of international humanitarian law,” Khan said. “Like many journalists killed in Gaza, Al-Ghoul was wearing a clearly marked press jacket when an Israeli drone missile hit the vehicle.”

Khan reminds us that journalists enjoy protection as civilians and that their deliberate targeting is a war crime. According to international humanitarian law, media workers only lose their civilian status if they take direct part in hostilities. So far, Israel has not provided concrete evidence the journalists were engaged in any hostilities. The special rapporteur is calling upon the International Criminal Court to “move swiftly to prosecute the killings of journalists in Gaza as a war crime.”  

The unprecedented killing of journalists in Gaza is part of a dangerous decade-long decline in media freedom and safety around the world. In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that proclaimed Nov. 2 the “International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.” The text urged member states to implement definite measures countering the present culture of impunity. 

Since then, the problem has only gotten worse. A 2022 report to the U.N. Human Rights Council details the unabated rise of attacks and killings of journalists; the criminalization of journalism, including legal and judicial harassment; and the general erosion of the independence, pluralism and viability of the media by state and corporate actors, including digital companies.

Between 2006 and 2023, over 1,600 journalists were killed around the world, with close to 9 out of 10 killings remaining judicially unresolved, according to the UNESCO Observatory of Killed Journalists. “Impunity leads to more killings and is often a symptom of worsening conflict and the breakdown of law and judicial systems,” the U.N. Agency warned. “Impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption and crime. Governments, civil society, the media and everyone concerned to uphold the rule of law are being asked to join in the global efforts to end impunity.”

The agency noted that the work of journalists is especially important in the upcoming “super-election year,” when some 2.6 billion citizens will go to the polls and reaffirmed UNESCO’s mandate, adopted in 1997, to condemn the “assassination and any physical violence against journalists as a crime against society.”

How many journalists need to die before the nations of the world heed this plea?