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al jazeera
Gaza Journalists Demand End to Israel's Impunity for 'Genocide Against Us'
"We have been let down by the international community, particularly the international media organizations," said Abubaker Abed, sharing a message from Palestinian journalists.
Jan 09, 2025
Palestinian journalists gathered outside al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah this week to call attention to Israeli forces' genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, their slaughter of those reporting on the ground, and the global community's failure to hold Israel accountable for the bloodshed.
On Thursday, the day after the event, Abubaker Abed, a Palestinian sports journalist now covering Israel's war on Gaza, shared on social media a short video of his remarks in English, which he said were delivered on behalf of all the reporters in blue vests who surrounded him and the podium.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Palestinian reporters across Gaza have covered what Abed called "the most well-documented and first livestreamed genocide in history," as Israel—armed by the United States—has launched airstrikes and ground raids, and stopped humanitarian aid and international media from entering the coastal enclave.
Abed said that "we've been reporting tirelessly, extensively, and thoroughly on this genocide. It's indeed a genocide against us, which we've been documenting in makeshift tented camps and workplaces... You've seen us shedding tears over our loved ones, colleagues, friends, and family members. You've seen us killed in every possible way. We've been immolated, incinerated, dismembered, and disemboweled—and recently, we've been freezing to death."
"What more ways should you be seeing us killed, then, so that you can move and act and stop the hell inflicted upon us? There are no words to describe what we've been going through, because you've seen our bodies, how they've become fragile, skinny, and fatigued, but we never stopped," he continued, highlighting how Palestinian journalists have worked "to help the population that has seen every sort of torture and tasted every type of death," while the world has refused to "stop Israel's impunity against us."
"Our message is very clear: We are journalists, and we are Palestinian journalists. We have been let down by the international community, particularly the international media organizations," Abed declared. "We haven't seen any sort of support—a single word of support. Even the press vests we're wearing right now mark us as a target. They do not protect us at all, because we are Palestinians. Maybe if we were Ukrainians or of any other citizenship, with blond hair and blue eyes, the world would rage and rant for us. But because we are Palestinians, we have only one right, which is to die and be maimed."
"We are just documenting a genocide against us," he concluded. "After almost a year and a half, we want you to stand foot-by-foot with us, because we are like any other journalists, reporters, and media workers all across the globe—no matter the origin, the color, or the race. Journalism is not a crime. We are not a target."
Some journalists around the world reposted Abed's video and called out their colleagues for ignoring Israel's decimation of Gaza or reporting on it in ways favorable to the far-right Israeli government and its supporters, including the United States.
"The past 15+ months have been one of the most shameful periods in the history of Western journalism,"
said Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site News, which has published Abed's reporting from Gaza. "The refusal of so many journalists to speak out in defense of our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza as they and their families have been hunted down and killed is a bloody stain."
The New Yorker editor Erin Overbey similarly said that "the staggering silence of Western journalists this past year as their Palestinian colleagues have been targeted, intimidated, and killed by Israeli forces during the genocide in Gaza will go down as one of the most shameful periods in media/journalism and human rights history."
British writer Owen Jones
said: "How to describe the refusal of Western journalists to speak out about the biggest slaughter of journalists in the history of human civilization? Damning. Racist. Nauseating. You will never be forgiven. History will damn those who stayed silent—every last fucking one."
Hamza Yusuf, a London-based British Palestinian writer, said that "we will never forget that whilst Palestinian journalists in Gaza were being systematically slaughtered by Israel, their industry peers at best looked on with indifference and at worst used their positions and their coverage to whitewash Israel's crimes. Blood on their hands."
As of Thursday, health officials in Gaza put the death toll from Israel's 15-month assault at 46,006, with at least 109,378 other Palestinians wounded, the vast majority of the enclave's population displaced, and civilian infrastructure in ruins. Israel faces global accusations of genocide, including in a case at the International Court of Justice.
Figures for press deaths have varied. The International Federation of Journalists—which works with its affiliate, the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, to verify information—has documented the killings of 148 Palestinian media workers while the Committee to Protect Journalists has a list of 152 confirmed fatalities, at least 13 of which the group classifies as murders by Israeli forces.
At the end of last year, Al Jazeerapublished a long-form article titled "Know Their Names" and reported that "from October 7, 2023, to December 25, 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza. Five more were killed on December 26 when an Israeli airstrike targeted a news van near al-Awda Hospital."
"Eighty percent of the journalists and media workers killed were between the ages of 20 and 40, a stark statistic that captures the young age of those who risk their lives to document the conflict," according to
Al Jazeera. "They were reporters and writers, photographers and video directors, analysts and editors, sound engineers and voiceover artists, and even founders of media outlets. Their stories remind us of the heavy price paid by those who strive to document humanity's darkest moments."
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Al Jazeera Condemns Palestinian Authority's Suspension of Outlet in West Bank
"The decision to freeze Al Jazeera's work and prevent its journalists from conducting their duties is an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps," the network wrote.
Jan 02, 2025
The Qatar-based media network Al Jazeera issued a strongly worded statement Thursday deploring the decision by the Palestinian Authority to temporarily ban the outlet's operations in the West Bank.
The network wrote that "Al Jazeera is shocked by this decision," which it called "nothing but an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territories."
The official Palestinian news agency—WAFA—wrote that the Palestinian Authority made the decision, which was handed down on Wednesday, because of Al Jazeera's "repeated violations of Palestinian laws and regulations." Al Jazeera has been accused of "broadcasting inciteful content" and "interfering in internal Palestinian affairs," but the statement from WAFA didn't offer a further explanation of how the network had broken the law.
The suspension will remain in effect until the network "addresses its legal status in accordance with Palestinian regulations," per WAFA.
The Palestinian Authority has governing authority over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including cities like Jenin and Ramallah. The Palestinian Authority is viewed with suspicion by many Palestinian people because of its security coordination with Israel.
In December, forces with the Palestinian Authority stormed the Jenin refugee camp and began a crackdown on armed groups in the camp, which has long been a site of armed struggle and resistance to Israel. Al Jazeeracovered the operation.
In Jenin, a young woman who—according to Democracy Now!—had been active in "documenting the Palestinian Authority's crackdown on armed groups fighting the Israeli occupation," was shot dead this past weekend. The family of the young reporter, Shatha al-Sabbagh, says that the Palestinian Authority security forces are responsible for her death.
A spokesperson from the Palestinian Authority denied this accusation during an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday.
"The decision to freeze Al Jazeera's work and prevent its journalists from conducting their duties is an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps," Al Jazeera wrote in their statement. The network added that the move aligns "with the previous action taken by the Israeli government, which closed Al Jazeera's office in Ramallah."
In May 2024, Israel shutteredAl Jazeera's operations within Israel on security grounds, and a couple months later raided the network's office in Ramallah.
Officials in Israel have long accused Al Jazeera—one of the most prominent media outlets in the Arab world—of being a "mouthpiece" for Hamas, according to The New York Times.
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Israel's Assault on Gaza Helped Make 2024 One of Deadliest Years Ever for Journalists: Report
"Our thoughts are with the families and friends of 122 media professionals killed this year. Behind this high figure, there are 122 truncated stories," said IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger.
Dec 31, 2024
The International Federation of Journalists, a group that represents media professionals, on Tuesday decried 2024 as one of the deadliest years for journalists. The group reports that more than 50% of those journalist deaths took place in the Middle East and Arab world—many due to Israeli airstrikes that have rained down on Gaza since October 7, 2023.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports that its updated tally for journalists killed in 2024 stands at 122, up from the 104 documented killings the group reported on December 10, International Human Rights Day. "The updated list of 31 December is primarily the result of additional deaths in the Middle East and the Arab world—nine more journalists have been killed in Palestine and two in Syria," per the group.
Last week, the Israeli military bombed a press vehicle in Gaza, killing five journalists in an attack that the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned as a "heinous crime." The journalists—Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, and Ayman al-Jadi—all worked for "Al-Quds Today," a local television channel.
IFJ reported that 129 journalists and media workers were killed in 2023. Since October 7, 2023 "the number of Palestinian journalists killed has risen to at least 147, making this country one of the most dangerous in the history of modern journalism," wrote IFJ in a Tuesday statement.
"Our thoughts are with the families and friends of 122 media professionals killed this year. Behind this high figure, there are 122 truncated stories," wrote IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger in the statement.
"To guarantee that the deaths of journalists do not go unpunished and to put an end to this scourge once and for all, we urge U.N. member states to take steps to ensure the adoption of a binding convention on the safety of journalists," he added.
Another group that advocates for journalists, Reporters Without Borders, offered a lower figure for the number of journalists killed worldwide in 2024 in their yearly roundup, which was published mid-December. Using a more narrow definition of journalists "killed on the job or in connection with their work," the group reported that at least 54 journalist had been killed around the globe this year.
Meanwhile, the outlet Al Jazeera on Monday published a tribute to Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and December 25, 2024—tallying at least 217 journalists and media workers slain.
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