Watchdog group accuses Israel of killing 29 journalists in Gaza this year

Reporters Without Borders says that Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed this year worldwide, with 29 Palestinian reporters killed by its forces in Gaza.

In its annual report, the Paris-based media freedom group said the total number of journalists killed reached 67 globally this year, slightly up from the 66 killed in 2024.

Israeli forces accounted for 43 percent of the total, making them “the worst enemy of journalists”, RSF says in its report, which documented deaths over 12 months from December 2024.

The most deadly single attack was a strike on a hospital in south Gaza on August 25, which killed five journalists, including two contributors to international news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press.

In total, since the start of hostilities in Gaza in October 2023, nearly 220 journalists have died, making Israel the biggest killer of journalists worldwide for three years running, RSF data shows.

Israel has accused some of the slain journalists of having been active members of terror groups. Israel has also barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza since the start of the war, giving Palestinian journalists a critical role in covering the conflict.

Both hospitals and journalists are supposed to be protected under international law, but hospitals can lose those protections if they are used for military purposes and journalists can, too, if they are armed or take part in hostilities.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and accuses Hamas of using Gaza’s civilians as human shields and embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including hospitals.