Officials suggest that targeting journalists could be a “deliberate strategy by Israeli forces” to silence reporting.
United Nations experts have condemned deadly attacks on journalists and media workers in Gaza, calling on Israel to allow journalists into the besieged territory and ensure their protection.
In a statement released Thursday, experts called the war on Gaza “the most dangerous conflict in recent history for journalists.”
“We have received worrying reports that, despite being clearly identifiable by their jackets and helmets marked “press” or traveling in well-marked press vehicles, journalists have been attacked, which seems to indicate that killings, injuries and detention are a problem. Israeli forces’ deliberate strategy to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting,” they said.
Experts included Irene Khan, UN rapporteur on freedom of expression; Francesca Albanese, UN rapporteur on Palestine; and Morris Tidball-Binz, UN rapporteur on extrajudicial killings.
Citing UN reports, the statement said more than 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war. Four Israeli journalists were killed in the October 7 attack and three Lebanese journalists were killed in Israeli bombings.
“We pay special tribute to the courage and resilience of journalists and media workers in Gaza, who continue to risk their lives every day in the line of duty, while enduring enormous hardship and the tragic loss of their colleagues, friends and families. one of the bloodiest and most ruthless conflicts of our time,” the experts said.
UN officials highlighted the case of Wael Dahdouh, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Gaza bureau chief, whose wife Amna, son Mahmoud, daughter Sham and grandson Adam were killed in an airstrike Israeli in October.
Dahdouh was later injured in an Israeli drone strike that killed his colleague, Tel Aviv Tribune cameraman Samer Abudaqa. Last month, his eldest son, Hamza – a journalist who worked for Tel Aviv Tribune – was killed in an Israeli attack alongside fellow journalist Mustafa Thuraya.
“Journalists have the right to protection as civilians under international humanitarian law. Targeted attacks and killings of journalists constitute war crimes,” the UN experts said. They called for impartial investigations into the murders of journalists.
Press freedom groups have warned of apparent attacks on journalists in Gaza.
Beyond the killings of journalists, media workers in the occupied Palestinian territories have been victims of increased attacks and repression by Israel in recent months.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog, 25 journalists have been arrested in Israel and the Palestinian territories since October 7.
Others have suffered “attacks, threats, cyberattacks and censorship,” the group said.
The attacks on journalists in Gaza come amid wider violence against the Palestinian territory. U.N. officials and humanitarian groups have said the conflict is one of the most destructive in modern times.
Israel has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians since October 7, razing much of the territory as it continues its military offensive.
“The massive destruction of Gaza and the number of civilian casualties in such a short time are completely unprecedented during my tenure,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said last month.