Israel Bombs Journalists As New Report Marks Grim Milestone For Gaza’s Press

Israeli forces bombed a tent full of Palestinian media workers on Monday in Gaza, killing at least three and wounding eight more — just days after a new report concluded that more journalists have been killed in the territory’s crisis than in most other major wars combined.

An Israeli strike hit the media tent overnight near a hospital in Khan Younis, setting it ablaze and killing Palestine Today journalist Helmi Al-Faqawi, according to local media. Reports have also identified civilian Yousef Al-Khazandar as the second person killed in the strike.

Gruesome footage taken and shared online by other journalists shows a man burning alive in the tent while some witnesses try putting out the fire. The man, now identified as Palestine Today editor Ahmad Mansour, was in critical condition until Monday night, when his colleagues said he died of severe burns.

The Monday strike also reportedly wounded freelance photographer Hassan Aslih, Alam24 photographer Ali Aslih, Anadolu photographer Abdallah Al-Attar, BBC Arabic contributor Ahmad Al-Agha, freelance photojournalist Mohammed Fayeq, ABC News cameraman Ihab Al-Bardini, Al Jazeera cameraman Mahmoud Awad and Radio Algerie correspondent Majid Qudeih.

Fellow journalists in Gaza City held a vigil on Tuesday in solidarity with their colleagues who became casualties of Israel’s 18-month military offensive, holding photos of those who’ve been killed as well as flyers denouncing the attack on the free press.

The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate said it “appeals to all human rights organizations, as well as institutions dedicated to press freedom and freedom of expression worldwide, and all media organizations, to expose to the world the horrific massacres and atrocities being committed by the Israeli occupation forces against journalists in Gaza – crimes that rank among the most heinous in the history of journalism.”

The attacks come after Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs released a report concluding that the rate of journalists killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, has rendered the territory a “news graveyard” and turned the ongoing crisis into the deadliest ever for members of the press. The institute’s Costs of War project released the analysis on April 1.

To break it down, Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza over the last year and a half than if one combines the number of journalists killed in the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia and the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

“It’s unclear how many Palestinian reporters in Gaza have been intentionally killed because of their work and how many were simply the victims, like tens of thousands of fellow civilians, of Israel’s bombardment of a densely populated 140-square mile strip of land,” the report said, adding that Palestinian journalists’ work is especially critical as Israel has barred foreign correspondents from entering the territory.

As of March 26, the death toll for journalists in Gaza stands at 232 since Israel launched its current military campaign that international commissions and human rights groups have labeled a genocide. That death toll equates to an average of 13 Palestinian journalists killed per month by Israel, according to the analysis. Several journalists have been killed or wounded since the report’s release, including Islam Maqdad and Hossam Shabat.

“The survivors reporting in the news graveyard of Gaza continue to work under threat of death, injury, arrest and cyberattack. They have endured the loss of family, friends, colleagues and homes. They have persevered in the face of intolerable hardships,” the report said. “Solidarity in the profession demands that international reporters call out repression, break blockades and support embattled journalists in Gaza and beyond.”