At least 64 journalists have been killed in the ongoing conflict in Gaza since the initial Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and the subsequent Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Saturday.
Of the 64 journalists killed during this period, 57 were Palestinian, four were Israeli and three were Lebanese. During the same period, 13 journalists were injured, 19 were detained and the fate of three remains unknown.
The CPJ highlighted the escalating dangers faced by journalists in the region and called for urgent action to protect media workers under attack. They stressed that press freedom in the region has become even more challenging in the wake of these tragic incidents, and urged the international community to put an end to the violence.
The tragic loss of journalists’ lives is compounded by incidents of harassment, detention and other interference in their reporting throughout the region, the CPJ said.
On Friday, Al-Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Gaza, while his colleague, Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh, was injured in the same attack. The CPJ has expressed deep sorrow over the incident and calls on the international authorities to conduct an independent investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Al Dahdouh, who lost family members in an Israeli airstrike in October, was taken to a nearby hospital in Khan Yunis for treatment. But Abu Daqqa remained trapped in the strike zone, surrounded by Israeli forces. Al-Jazeera footage shows Al Dahdouh desperately pleading for Abu Daqqa to be rescued, but the dangerous conditions prevented medics from reaching him.
The CPJ stressed the importance of investigating and holding accountable those responsible for attacks on journalists during the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.
More than 19,000 people have been killed since the conflict began on 7 October. The death toll includes about 18,000 in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank and about 1,200 in Israel.