Gaza’s Government Media Office has announced that the death toll among media workers in Gaza since the war began is 201.
This follows after an Israeli attack resulted in the deaths of five journalists.
The Israeli military confirmed that it carried out an attack on a clearly marked media vehicle in Gaza that killed five journalists working for Palestinian satellite TV channel, Al-Quds Today, claiming its air forces had targeted a “terrorist cell.”
The military – which has systematically killed dozens of Palestinian journalists during its war on Gaza – said the targeted people belonged to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group.
It provided no evidence to support its claim.
The journalists were sleeping in the van in front of the al-Awda Hospital in the Nusierat refugee camp when it was targeted in an air strike in the early hours of Thursday, December 26, 2024.
The Government Media Office, in a statement, condemned “in the strongest terms” the Israeli occupation’s targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists.
“We hold the ‘Israeli’ occupation, the American administration, and the countries participating in the crime of genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France fully responsible for committing this heinous and brutal crime.”
Gaza Government Media Office
The office also called on the international community and organisations to prosecute Israel’s crimes in international courts “and bring the criminals of the occupation to justice.”
It added, “We also call on them to exert serious and effective pressure to stop the crime of genocide, and to protect journalists and media professionals in Palestine … and stop the crime of killing and assassinating them.”
Killing Of Five Journalists Caps Another Deadly Year For Palestinian Reporters In Gaza
The latest killing of five journalists in an Israeli attack in Gaza caps a deadly year for news organisations and Palestinian reporters covering Israel’s war on the enclave.
An International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) survey in mid-December recorded 104 journalists killed across the world in 2024 with Palestinian reporters killed in Gaza making up more than half of all those killed, with 55 dead.
In addition, six reporters were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon and one reporter was killed in Israel’s bombing campaign of Syria.
Reporters in Gaza have also been detained, imprisoned and interrogated by Israeli forces and had their equipment confiscated or smashed.
Since October 2023, 75 Palestinian journalists have been imprisoned by Israel, with only 30 freed since. Another 49 have been injured in attacks and at least two are missing.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), using different parameters of analysis, found 54 journalists had been killed worldwide this year up until December 1, 2024, but still found that Palestinian reporters represented the majority of those killed. The Israeli military was responsible for killing a third of all journalists this year, the group said.
A week after the IFJ survey released its results earlier this month, another four reporters were killed in Gaza.
Now, with an additional five deaths days away from the end of 2024, these counts are already out of date and will need to be revised.
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