130 journalists killed in Israel’s war on Gaza
The number of journalists killed in Gaza rose to 130 since the start of Israel’s onslaught on the Palestinian territory following the death of two more reporters.
The government media office in Gaza in a statement named the two journalists as Zaid Abu Zayed and Yasser Mamdouh.
Zayed was killed in the bombing of a house in the Nuseirat camp, along with his wife and children, while Mamdouh was killed by Israeli snipers in the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 99 journalists were killed worldwide in 2023, making those 12 months the deadliest for the media in almost a decade.
The Palestinian victims account for nearly 75 percent of all journalists killed worldwide.
Killings of reporters would have dropped globally year-on-year had it not been for the deaths in the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, the CPJ said in its annual report released on Thursday.
“This war is unprecedented in terms of the threat to journalists,” Jodie Ginsberg, president of the CPJ, told Al Jazeera from New York.
“What’s important to remember about this war is that Gazan journalists are the only journalists able to report on what’s happening inside Gaza. International journalists have not been able to get in, have not been allowed in, except on very, very controlled trips that are overseen by the Israeli army.
“So we are entirely reliant on those [Palestinian] journalists, who are risking their lives to bring us this story,” she added.
The CPJ has previously attacked the “persecution” of journalists by Israeli forces and is investigating whether a dozen journalists killed in the Gaza conflict were deliberately targeted by Israeli soldiers, which would constitute a war crime.
Journalists in Gaza have been killed covering the war and sheltering from it. Some have died with their colleagues; others, with their families.
They tried to report any way they could, recording scenes of carnage and rare moments of calm through photos, videos and social media posts. The images they left behind — or the words they didn’t know would be their last — allowed a glimpse into the lives of besieged Palestinians in a devastating war.