LONDON: At least 15 media workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of 2025, according to a new report released by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
The report, published over the weekend by the syndicate’s freedoms committee, which monitors Israeli violations against journalists, highlighted the continued direct targeting of media workers.
Seven journalists were killed in January and eight in March, the report stated.
In addition, family members of 17 journalists were killed, while 12 reporters’ homes were destroyed by rocket and shell attacks, with 11 injured in the assaults.
The report noted that violence against media crews extended beyond fatal attacks. It documented the arrest of 15 journalists, either at their homes or while on assignment. Some were released within hours or days, while others remain in detention.
The syndicate also recorded 49 death threats issued against journalists, many of whom were warned to evacuate the areas they were covering.
Legal harassment intensified as well, with the report citing over 10 cases in which journalists — mostly from the West Bank-based Al-Quds newspaper — were summoned for interrogation and banned from reporting near Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s Old City.
In the occupied West Bank, approximately 117 journalists faced physical assaults, repression, or reporting bans, particularly in Jenin and Jerusalem. The committee also documented 16 cases of work equipment being confiscated or destroyed.
The violence against journalists comes amid a renewed Israeli military campaign in Gaza following the collapse of a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Israeli forces have intensified their offensive, cutting off vital supplies to Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, leaving the enclave on the brink of famine.
Israel’s actions are now the subject of hearings at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where Tel Aviv faces accusations of violating international law by restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The humanitarian toll has been devastating.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 61,700 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 14,000 others are missing and presumed dead, with civilians making up the vast majority of casualties.
Washington-based press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, has also raised alarm over the scale of media worker deaths, reporting that at least 176 journalists — almost all Palestinian — have been killed since Israel launched its assault on the Occupied Territories.
