More Journalists Killed in Gaza Than World War I, II

More journalists and media workers have been murdered in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 2023, when “Israel” began its continuing genocidal assault there, than in both World Wars and other major conflicts combined, a new report revealed.

In his comprehensive report, “News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World,” published on Tuesday by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, American investigative journalist Nick Turse revealed that 232 journalists have been killed in Gaza as of March 26.

The startling figure, which averages about 13 fatalities per month, exceeds the total number of journalist deaths in the US Civil War, both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars (including conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and 2000s, and the war on Afghanistan combined, he said.

The report emphasized that local journalists bear the brunt of these risks, as the decline in Western foreign correspondents has forced the global media to rely more on local reporters, who frequently operate with limited resources and protection.

According to the research, “Most reporters harmed or killed, as is the case in Gaza, are local journalists. The world increasingly relies on these often underpaid, under-resourced, and under-equipped journalists to carry out the most dangerous types of coverage as the number of Western foreign correspondents dwindles.”

Turse emphasized in his report that the Israeli regime’s restriction on foreign reporters in Gaza, along with the murdering of Palestinian journalists, means there are considerably fewer journalists capable of relaying news from the war-torn area to the American audience.

He added that this was particularly harmful since the US “approved around $18 billion in financial support for Israeli military aggression in Gaza and elsewhere in the year following October 2023.”

Thirty-seven journalists were murdered in the Gaza Strip during the first month of the 2023 Gaza War, making it the bloodiest month documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) since data collection began in 1992, the study added.

According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, around 380 journalists in Gaza had been injured as of January of this year.

Turse added that it was unclear how many reporters in Gaza were intentionally killed and how many were “simply victims, like tens of thousands of fellow civilians, of Israel’s bombardment of a densely populated 140-square mile strip of land.”

The study, citing Reporters Without Borders (RSF), emphasized that there have been at least 35 occasions since October 2023 in which there is adequate evidence to show that the journalists slain were “directly targeted” by Israeli forces “because of their work.”

Journalist, family killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Yesterday, Al-Aqsa local radio stated that journalist Mohammed al-Bardaweel and his family were killed in an attack on their home in Khan Younis.

“The criminal Israeli occupation army, by targeting Palestinian journalists, is desperately trying to silence the Palestinian narrative and obscure the truth,” the local radio said in a statement. 

The murder of al-Bardaweel brings the total number of Palestinian journalists killed in the war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, to 209, according to the media office.

The Gaza-based Government Media Office denounced the killing of the journalist and his family, urging the international community, particularly global press organizations, to condemn the targeting of Palestinian journalists and seek legal redress in international tribunals.