Israel killed more journalists than any other army in given year — CPJ

The first ten weeks of Israel's war on besieged Gaza have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year at one location, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] said.

Most of the journalists and media workers — 61 out of 68 — killed in the war were Palestinian, CPJ said.

The report said on Thursday it was "particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military."

A spokesperson for Israel's military claimed the troops don't target journalists.

"The number of journalist martyrs has risen to 97 since the start of the [Israeli] brutal aggression on Gaza," the Gaza-based government media office said on Tuesday.

The last journalist victim was Adel Zorob who was killed in Israeli air strikes on Rafah city, southern Gaza, it said, accusing Israeli army of deliberately killing the Palestinian journalists with the aim "to obliterate the truth."

Four Israeli and three Lebanese journalists, including Reuters news agency visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, were also killed between October 7 and December 20, CPJ data showed.

The group, a non-profit organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide, said it was further investigating the circumstances of all journalist killings.

It said such efforts in Gaza were hampered by widespread destruction and by the killing of journalists' family members, who typically serve as sources for investigators looking into how the journalists died.

'Deadly pattern'

Reporting in Gaza has been severely restricted under intense Israeli bombardment, with repeated communications blackouts and a lack of food, fuel and housing, said CPJ, adding that foreign journalists have not been able to independently access the strip for most of the war.

"The Israel-Gaza war is the most dangerous situation for journalists we have ever seen, and these figures show that clearly," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator.

"The Israeli army has killed more journalists in 10 weeks than any other army or entity has in any single year. And with every journalist killed, the war becomes harder to document and to understand."

A May report by CPJ found what it called a "deadly pattern", in which Israeli soldiers had killed at least 20 journalists in the last 22 years, and none had ever been charged or held accountable.

Highest journalist death toll

Earlier this month, a Reuters investigation found an Israeli tank crew killed Abdallah and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on October 13 by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel while the journalists were filming cross-border shelling.

CPJ highlighted that the first month of the war was the deadliest ever recorded since they began collecting data in 1992, with 37 journalists killed.

CPJ also mentioned that Iraq, the only country to come this close in terms of journalist casualties, had 56 journalists killed in the entirety of 2006.

The Philippines saw 33 journalist deaths in 2009, while Syria had 32 in 2012, Afghanistan with 15 journalists killed in 2018, and Somalia with 12 in 2012.

On Wednesday, Press For Palestine, an initiative for Palestinian journalists, released a single-copy newspaper in Istanbul , and it mentioned that during the six years of World War II, 69 journalists were killed; 63 in the 20-year Vietnam War and 17 in the three-year Korean War.

All of those events had a lower journalist death toll compared to the recent Israeli war on besieged Gaza, and they all had a much longer period of time to unfold.

The non-profit organisation had a series of calls to Israel and the international community, and suggested a few recommendations to protect journalists on duty, including protecting journalists lives by allowing aid and respecting the press insignia, provide access and ability to report, investigate attacks and end impunity.