The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has reported that eleven journalists have been killed and more than twenty injured by Israeli missiles and shells since Israel began its onslaught on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The Press Freedoms Committee of the Syndicate issued a press release confirming that Israeli soldiers killed eleven Palestinian journalists working for a number of media outlets.
It said the army killed Ahmad Shehab of the Palestinian Detainees’ Radio, Photojournalist Mohammad Salhi of the Al-Rabe’a Medica Agency, photojournalist Mohammad Fayez Abu Matar, photojournalists Hisham Nawaj’a and Mohammad Abu Rezeq of the Khabar Media Agency, Ibrahim Lafi a photojournalist with Ein Media Agency, the editor-in-chief of Al-Khamisa News Agency Issa Tweel, Mohammad Jarghouth of Smart Media Agency, in addition to journalists As’ad Shamlakh, Salam Maima, and Husam Mubarak.
The Committee added that two journalists, Nidal Al-Wahidi of the Najah Satellite Media Agency and Haitham Abdul-Wahed of the Ein Media Agency, are still missing, believed to be buried under the rubble of bombarded buildings.
In addition, twenty journalists have been injured by Israeli missiles, and twenty journalists’ homes have been bombed.
The Israeli army also bombarded 50 media centers, including Al-Jazeera, Palestine TV, French Press Agency, Al-Aqsa Media Agency, Maan News Agency, Shehab News Agency, Sawa News Agency, Al-Quds Agency, Baladna Radio, zaman Radio, National Radio, Khabar Radio, Al-Ayyam newspaper, Even Agency for Media Services, Fadel Shana’a media institute, Quran Radio, Shams News and APA office.
It added that the lack of electricity and internet due to the Israeli onslaught is also hindering the work of the journalists.
In the West Bank, the Israeli army continued to assault and open fire and journalists physically, in addition to detaining him.
There have been ten documented incidents where the army opened fire at Palestinian journalists, including when the army attacked Yazan Hamayel and Wahaj Bani Mifleh in Beit town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The army also abducted four journalists, Abdul-Nasser Lahham, Sabri Jabr, Moath Amarna, and Mustafa Al-Khawaja, after storming their homes.
In addition, the soldiers detained journalists more than 22 times within the last week, assaulted at least seven, and damaged various cameras and equipment.
The Israeli army also stopped the Al-Aqsa TV broadcast after shutting the signal down on Eutelsat.
Dozens of journalists received death threats, especially by police officers and paramilitary Israeli colonizers, in person and on various social media pages, in addition to distributing leaflets and social media posts calling for killing Palestinian journalists, including Muthanna Najjar from Gaza and Mohammad Turkman from the West Bank.
