Gaza (Quds News Network)- Two Palestinian journalists were killed on Thursday in separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, bringing the total number of journalists killed during the ongoing genocide to 217. Hassan Samour Journalist Hassan Samour was killed along with 11 members of his family when an Israeli strike targeted their home in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis. He was a broadcaster and program host at Al-Aqsa Voice Radio. Ahmed Al-Helou Journalist Ahmed al-Helou was killed along with his brother following an Israeli strike that targeted a civilian gathering near Hamad City. Al-Helou worked in design and video editing at Quds News Network Arabic. World’s Most Dangerous State for Journalists Gaza’s Government Media Office condemned the killing, adding at least 217 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the assault in October 2023. It said it condemns “in the strongest terms the systematic targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists” by Israeli forces. “We hold the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and the countries participating in the crime of genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous, brutal crime,” it added. Reporters Without Borders said this month in its World Press Freedom Index 2025 that Israeli forces killed nearly 200 journalists and media workers in the first 18 months of its war in Gaza, at least 42 of whom were killed while doing their job, adding that Palestine has become the world’s most dangerous state for journalists amid the Israeli war. “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’s genocidal war on Gaza has been considered the deadliest for journalists and media workers in the world in 30 years. The Media 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. Israel’s assault on Gaza has been the “worst ever conflict” for journalists, according to a recent 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. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) chief Jodie Ginsberg said in a 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.” 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.”