Gaza’s Hamas rulers say 3 journalists killed in Israeli raids

A plume of smoke rises during an Israeli strike on the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on December 1, 2023, as fighting resumed shortly after the expiration of a seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas militants. (AFP)
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Updated 02 December 2023
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Gaza’s Hamas rulers say 3 journalists killed in Israeli raids

  • Gaza’s deadliest war began when Hamas militants on October 7 launched a shock attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s Hamas-run government said three journalists were killed in Israeli raids on Friday as fierce fighting resumed after a week-long truce.
The government press office identified the three as cameraman Muntassir Al-Sawwaf, who worked for Turkiye’s Anadolu state news agency, his brother Marwan, who worked as a soundman, and cameraman Abdullah Darwish.
It said their deaths brought to 73 the number of journalists killed since the war began on October 7.
The Turkish agency confirmed Friday the death of Sawwaf and two others who it did not name in southern Gaza.
“We are concerned about the lives of our colleagues, who fulfil their duties with great devotion under very difficult conditions,” Anadolu general director Serdar Karagoz said.
“We will continue our struggle to ensure that those who carried out these attacks are held to account.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said earlier Friday that at least 57 journalists and media workers had died since the start of the war.
Gaza’s deadliest war began when Hamas militants on October 7 launched a shock attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Israel responded with an air and artillery assault on the Gaza Strip that it said aimed to topple Hamas and return more than 240 hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 178 people had died in the territory since a seven-day pause in hostilities expired early Friday and ground battles and Israel air strikes resumed.
During the truce, Hamas freed 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas authorities say the Israeli campaign has killed more than 15,000 people, mostly civilians.

 


Israeli court overturns conviction of officer who assaulted Palestinian journalist, citing ‘Oct. 7 PTSD’

Updated 25 February 2026
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Israeli court overturns conviction of officer who assaulted Palestinian journalist, citing ‘Oct. 7 PTSD’

  • Judge sentenced Yitzhak Sofer to 300 hours of community service, saying officer “devoted his life to Israel’s security” and conviction was “disproportionate to severity of his actions”
  • Footage shows Sofer throwing photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf to the ground, and repeatedly beating and kicking him while he covered Palestinian gatherings near Al-Aqsa Mosque

LONDON: An Israeli court overturned the conviction of a border police officer who assaulted a Palestinian journalist, ruling his actions were influenced by post-traumatic stress disorder from serving during the Oct. 7 2023 attacks.

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court sentenced officer Yitzhak Sofer to 300 hours of community service for assaulting Anadolu Agency photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf in occupied East Jerusalem in December 2023.

Footage shows Sofer and other officers drawing weapons, throwing Alkharouf to the ground, and repeatedly beating and kicking him while he covered Palestinian gatherings near Al-Aqsa Mosque amid heavy restrictions.

Alkharouf was hospitalized with facial and body injuries. His cameraman, Faiz Abu Ramila, was also attacked.

Sofer had been convicted in September 2024 of assault causing bodily harm (acquitted of threats) and initially faced six months’ community service, as recommended by Mahash, the Justice Ministry’s police misconduct unit.

Judge Amir Shaked accepted the defense request to cancel the conviction, replacing it with community service.

He cited Sofer’s PTSD from responding to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, noting the officer had “no prior criminal record” and had “devoted his life to Israel’s security.”

“The court cannot ignore this when considering whether the defendant’s conviction should stand,” he said, adding that while the incident is “serious and does cross the criminal threshold,” the conviction in place could cause Sofer harm “disproportionate to the severity of his actions.”

The ruling comes amid surging attacks on journalists in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since Israel’s war on Gaza began.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported Israel responsible for two-thirds of the 129 media workers killed worldwide in 2025, the deadliest year on record, citing a “persistent culture of impunity” and lack of transparent probes.

Reporters Without Borders called the Israeli army the “worst enemy of journalists” in its 2025 report, with nearly half of global reporter deaths in Gaza.

Foreign journalists face raids, arrests and intimidation. In late January 2026, Israel’s Supreme Court granted a delay on ruling a ban on foreign media access to Gaza.