Palestine Now the World’s Most Dangerous Place for Journalists, Says RSF Amid Israel’s Gaza Genocide

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Palestine has become the world’s most dangerous state for journalists amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with dozens of reporters likely killed specifically due to their work, Reporters Without Borders said on Friday.

The media freedom watchdog said in its World Press Freedom Index 2025 that Israeli forces killed nearly 200 journalists in the first 18 months of the war, at least 42 of whom were killed while doing their job.

“Trapped in the enclave, journalists in Gaza have no shelter and lack everything, including food and water,” said the Paris-based group, which is also known by its French acronym RSF.

“In the West Bank, journalists are routinely harassed and attacked by both settlers and Israeli forces, but repression reached new heights with a wave of arrests after 7 October, when impunity for crimes committed against journalists became a new rule.”

Israel ranked 112th for press freedom in the latest index, a drop of 11 places from 2024, the RSF said, pointing to growing restrictions on press freedom, media plurality and editorial independence since the start of the war in Gaza.

“In 2024, the Minister of Communication called on the government to boycott Haaretz, one of the few newspapers to criticise Netanyahu’s policies, including the massacre of civilians in Gaza – a topic that is largely suppressed,” the group said.

Israel’s Attacks on Journalists in Gaza

At least 212 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the start of the Israeli assault in October 2023, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

“The Government Media Office condemns in the strongest terms the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation,” the Office said in a statement.

“We call on the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Arab Journalists, and all journalistic bodies in all countries of the world to condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip,” it added.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years.

The Office said that Israel targeted journalists “in an attempt to suppress the Palestinian narrative and erase the truth. However, the occupation failed to break the will of our great people.”

Critics accuse Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – of targeting journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.

Israel’s assault on Gaza has been the “worst ever conflict” for journalists, according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

The report, titled News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World, said the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip had “killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined”.

“In 2023, a journalist or media worker was, on average, killed or murdered every four days. In 2024, it was once every three days,” said the report.

“Most reporters harmed or killed, as is the case in Gaza, are local journalists.”

The Center for Protecting Palestinian Journalists (PJPS) said that the killing of journalists is part of a series of human rights violations committed by the Israeli occupation.

In its annual report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said a record number of journalists were killed in 2024, with Israel responsible for more than two-thirds of those deaths.

The committee’s chief Jodie Ginsberg said in the statement, “The war in Gaza is unprecedented in its impact on journalists and demonstrates a major deterioration in global norms on protecting journalists in conflict zones, but it is far from the only place journalists are in danger.”

At least 85 journalists died throughout 2024 at the hands of the Israeli military during Israel’s war on Gaza, the CPJ said, with 82 of those who were killed being Palestinians.

The advocacy group also accused Israel of attempting to stifle investigations into the killings, shift blame onto journalists for their own deaths, and ignoring its duty to hold its own military personnel accountable for the killings of so many media workers.

In a recent report, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) described 2024 as “one of the worst years” for media professionals. It condemned the “massacre taking place in Palestine before the eyes of the entire world.”

Israel’s Resumption of War

Israeli attacks have killed over 2,300 Palestinians and injured hundreds more after announcing the resumption of its assault in Gaza on March 18. The Israeli attacks marked the collapse of a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal that had begun on January 19. The first phase ended on March 1, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to proceed with the second phase.

Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court, sought to free more Israeli captives without fulfilling Israel’s commitments, including ending the war and withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas insisted on implementing the full agreement.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli assaults, backed by the US, have killed over 52,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children.