Gaza (QNN)- On World Press Day, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip commemorated more than 262 journalists killed by Israeli forces since the start of the genocide, while three others remain missing, describing the toll as evidence of a “continued systematic policy of targeting journalists and silencing the voice of truth.”
On 3 May each year, the world marks World Press Day, reaffirming the importance of protecting journalistic work and safeguarding freedom of opinion and expression as fundamental pillars of any democratic system, and as a guarantee of peoples’ right to access the truth.
However, this year’s day comes amid an “unprecedented and catastrophic reality faced by Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, in light of the ongoing Israeli genocidal war, which has turned journalism into a mission fraught with death and direct targeting,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement on Sunday.
According to the Office, 262 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel since the start of the genocide in October 2023.
“This constitutes clear evidence of a systematic policy aimed at silencing the Palestinian voice and preventing the truth from reaching the world,” it added.
In addition, 50 journalists have been abducted by Israeli forces “under harsh conditions, in blatant violation of international laws guaranteeing the protection of journalists.”
Meanwhile, three journalists remain missing, raising serious concerns about their fate.
At the same time, more than 420 journalists have been injured, including severe injuries leading to amputations and permanent disabilities, “in clear and direct targeting of media personnel.”
These crimes, the Office said, “constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Conventions, which guarantee the protection of civilians, including journalists, during armed conflict. They amount to fully fledged war crimes that require international accountability and prosecution.”
“This represents one of the bloodiest periods for journalists in modern history, reflecting the scale of the deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalism in an attempt to silence the voice of truth and prevent the documentation of the crimes and violations committed against the Palestinian people,” the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) said.
The PJS also said: “Targeting journalists will not succeed in breaking the will of the Palestinian journalistic community or deterring it from fulfilling its professional and humanitarian mission of conveying the truth and documenting the crimes and aggression faced by the Palestinian people.”
The Israeli attacks on journalists in Gaza also continues despite the so-called ceasefire agreement which took effect in October continues to violate it, killing over 800 Palestinians and restricting the entry of much-needed aid. At least 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
The head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said the Gaza Strip is “witnessing the largest massacre of journalists in history.”
Reporters Without Borders said in its World Press Freedom Index 2025 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 Gaza 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.”
