New York, October 8 (RHC)-- Figures by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) show the Israeli campaign of death and destruction across the besieged Palestinian territory has killed more journalists over the past year than any other conflict over the past three decades.
According to data by the CPJ, at least 128 media workers have been killed in the conflict between October 7, 2023 and October 4, 2024.
The CPJ, a U.S.-based group monitoring human rights violations against journalists worldwide, is also investigating a further 130 cases of suspected killings, detentions, or injuries. The organization says Israel’s military campaign on the Gaza Strip has become “the bloodiest for journalists” since the committee began documenting journalist killings worldwide in 1992.
The Palestinian health ministry recently estimated that at least 175 were killed between October 7, 2023 and October 6, 2024.
Experts of the United Nations have previously warned about “the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detained in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The ICJ also said that journalists over the past 12 months have worked under the same dire humanitarian conditions as all civilians in Gaza. The dire circumstances include the devastating bombardment of the densely populated strip that destroyed most of its buildings, the Israeli siege that led to famine, and the constant displacement of the population.
Journalists working in Palestinian territories face heightened risks while covering the conflict, contending with Israeli ground assaults and airstrikes, interrupted communications, supply shortages, and power outages. Media workers have taken an unprecedented toll since Israel launched the war on Gazans following retaliatory Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023.
Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle. Additionally, nearly 42,000 helpless Gazans, mostly women, and children, have also been killed since early October last year.
