Two years ago, an Israeli soldier fired at a woman wearing a bullet-proof vest clearly bearing the word “Press”. His shot struck the woman in the neck, penetrating between her vest and helmet. One of the Arab region’s most recognized and admired reporters, Shireen Abu Akleh, died shortly after. 

 A dual American-Palestinian citizen, Abu Akleh had been a familiar face to TV viewers as a correspondent for the Al-Jazeera network. For 25 years, she reported on the lives of Palestinians in particular. On May 11, 2022, Abu Akleh and her crew were covering the aftermath of an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp after a string of deadly attacks by Palestinians in Israel–a familiar pattern of violence in the area. Abu Akleh was not near any fighting; the area was quiet, save for the sound of distant gunfire, when she was killed. 

Israel initially denied involvement, although it later admitted responsibility—and last year apologized—for the attack. Numerous independent investigations concluded that given where on the body Abu Akleh was shot, her clearly visible “Press” vest, and the fact that there was no active fighting in the area, the killing was most likely a deliberate attack. Her death, while mourned around the world, was not unprecedented. 

Killing Journalists is a Long-Standing Pattern

The killing of Abu Akleh was not an isolated incident. A report published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in May 2023 found that Israeli forces had killed 20 journalists over the preceding 22 years. Eighteen of them were Palestinians. No one has ever been held accountable for any of those deaths and only a handful of cases have received anything but a cursory investigation.

The killing of journalists appears to be part of a broader pattern in which Israel deliberately attempts to silence the media—despite Israel’s repeated insistence that it is the sole democracy upholding press freedoms in the region. Over the past several decades, Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked buildings housing media organizations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory— in violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure. 

While the Israeli military refuses to disclose their rules of engagement, specifically regarding the protection of journalists, this pattern of killings points to a model in which media personnel are deliberately targeted for their work, a violation of international law. 

Attacks on Journalists Since October 7

This pattern has played out again in the current war on Gaza. CPJ has documented the killings of 107 journalists since October 7. Two were Israeli journalists killed by Hamas. The other 105 were killed by the Israeli military; 102 of them were Palestinians and three were Lebanese. In addition, many media offices have been destroyed, including a building housing the offices of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Al Jazeera.

Israel has repeatedly denied that it is deliberately targeting journalists or media infrastructure during the current war, but the details of these attacks tell a different story. CPJ has documented at least three targeted killings so far: The first was Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, a Lebanese national killed on the Israeli border during an attack that also injured a number of colleagues from other news organizations. The strike that killed him hit an Al Jazeera car and blew Abdallah through a wall. According to AFP reporter Dylan Collins, who was injured in the attack, Abdallah’s body “was charred almost beyond recognition”. Several investigations have concluded that the group of journalists was deliberately targeted. As with Abu Akleh and her crew, Abdallah and his colleagues were clearly visible as journalists working in an area known to be a site for filming. 

In January, journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were killed in a targeted strike on their car in Khan Younis. Israeli officials gave several different explanations for why the car was attacked but finally alleged that “both the deceased were members of Gaza-based terrorist organizations actively involved in attacks against [Israeli military] forces”—a claim that families and colleagues of the dead men vigorously denied. Evidence presented by the Israeli military has been widely discredited.

CPJ believes that the details of at least 10 other cases since October 7 indicate a deliberate targeting of journalists by the Israeli military. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the Israeli Military General Advocate, acknowledged there had been cases of “unacceptable conduct” by the military and that some of these cases were now under investigation. An analysis of the suspected targeted killings revealed two issues that CPJ believes required immediate investigation, policy changes, and training of military personnel consistent with international law. These issues include the use of precision drones to target journalists and the failure to respect press insignia.

 For example, in December 2023, Al-Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was struck by a drone and left to bleed to death after Israeli authorities blocked efforts to evacuate him. This drone attack also injured Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh. Al Dahdouh and Abu Daqqa were both wearing “Press” vests. 

A month later, Israel launched two drone attacks at journalists filming a destroyed house in Khan Younis. The first drone strike injured two of the journalists, Amer Abu Amr and Ahmed al-Bursh. The second strike killed the other two journalists, Hamza Al Dahdouh (Wael’s son) and Mustafa Thuraya. 

On February 13, 2024, Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Abu Omar and freelance camera operator and photojournalist Ahmed Matar were seriously injured while traveling by motorcycle for a reporting assignment north of Rafah. They were hit by an Israeli drone strike. Both journalists were wearing “Press” vests and carrying their equipment.

 The number of potential targeted attacks since October 7 may be an underestimate. The intensity of the war, rapid rate of journalist deaths, and the fact that independent investigation is currently not possible inside the country (since journalists and investigators are barred from entering Gaza) makes it extremely difficult to ascertain the true number of attacks or obtain the level of detail needed to bring cases to international bodies like the International Criminal Court.

Failures to Investigate and False Justifications

Israel’s practice of targeting journalists began well before the current war. CPJ’s Deadly Pattern report shows that the Israeli military was responsible for 80% of journalist and media worker killings in the Palestinian territories between 2001 and May 2023. Internal reviews from the Israeli army are unlikely to bring justice because very few deaths are ever seriously investigated. When investigations do take place, they take months or even years to complete and lack transparency. So far, no one has ever been held accountable for these killings. 

The CPJ report indicates that Israel’s method of avoiding accountability is not a new development. The pattern is consistent. First, Israeli forces target and kill a journalist. Next, they immediately deny any involvement. Eventually, they admit responsibility but claim the killed journalists were engaged in terrorism. This practice has been a long-standing framework for Israeli engagement. 

Examples include that of Yaser Murtaja, a photographer killed by Israel in 2018. Israeli officials repeatedly alleged he was a member of Hamas, but it was later revealed that he had been vetted and approved by the U.S. government to receive a grant to support his production company earlier that month. No credible evidence that Murtaja was a terrorist has ever been produced.

Similarly, the Israeli military alleged Hussam Salama and Mahmoud al-Kumi, camera operators for Al-Aqsa TV, were “Hamas operatives” after they were killed by an Israeli missile in 2012. A Human Rights Watch investigation found no proof that the two were militants. When CPJ asked for evidence to justify the attack, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. responded (two months later) with a letter accusing Al-Aqsa TV of “glorifying death and advocating violence and murder”. The letter did not specify why this accusation would negate the journalists’ right to civilian protections.

In 2021, Israel bombed a building in Gaza that contained the offices of several media organizations, including AP and Al Jazeera. In November of last year, an Israeli missile hit a building in Gaza that housed AFP. Israel initially denied responsibility but later admitted it carried out a strike “nearby” to the agency’s bureau without having “in any way” targeted it. AFP was the only one of the world’s three major international news agencies operating a live video stream of the war at the time. Shortly after the attack, the camera on the bureau’s balcony stopped working.

Disturbingly, there also appears to be a pattern in which the homes—and therefore families—of journalists are targeted. In 2021, an Israeli airstrike killed Voice of Al-Aqsa reporter Yousef Abu Hussein in his home. In October 2023, Wael Al Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter, and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike. A month later, Israel struck the home of news photographer Yasser Qudih. The strike occurred days after an Israeli media advocacy group questioned Qudih’s coverage of October 7, an unfounded and widely debunked report that prompted death threats against him on social media. Qudih survived but eight of his family members died. To date, the Israeli military has not provided credible evidence of a military basis for these actions.

When CPJ asked the Israeli military for the results of its probes into the deaths of Abu Hussein and Yaser Murtaja—which occurred within weeks of each other—it received identically worded answers that the journalists were “allegedly present at the scene of violent riots” and “no suspicion was found which would justify the opening of a criminal investigation”. CPJ asked for full probes into their deaths and those of the other journalists killed between 2001 and May 2022, but the Israeli military did not provide them, nor did it answer CPJ’s question about why the army keeps these probes confidential. 

Censorship Through Detention

In addition to utilizing targeted killings and then obstructing proper investigations, Israel has also worked to silence reporters through detention. This practice violates Articles 76 and 78 of the Geneva Conventions. These articles only permit detention for imperative security threats and require that the detainee be held within the occupied territories, not transported elsewhere. These requirements are not upheld for Palestinian detainees and the UN called on Israel to end these administrative detentions in 2020. 

CPJ has documented the arrest of at least 25 journalists by Israel since the start of the war. In March, CPJ filed an urgent submission to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding three Palestinian journalists being held under administrative detention. 

While most of the arrests have occurred in the West Bank, there have also been cases in Gaza. Diaa Al-Kahlout, the veteran bureau chief for Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, was detained during a mass arrest in Beit Lahya in December 2023, along with members of his family. Al-Kahlout says that he was subjected to interrogation and physical and psychological mistreatment over his 33 days in Israeli custody. International humanitarian law prohibits humiliating, inhumane, or degrading treatment of prisoners.

 These attacks on journalists and media infrastructure are compounded by growing legal restrictions that risk curtailing free and independent reporting in Israel. In April 2024, the Knesset passed a law that gives the government the power to temporarily ban the broadcasting of international news outlets in Israel if they are deemed threatening to national security. Soon after, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet shut down Qatar-based newsgroup Al Jazeera. The International Federation of Journalists called on Israel “to stop using ‘national security’ as an excuse to censor critical media” and stated, “The actions of the Israeli government are unfitting of a democracy.”

Journalism and International Law

For states to be fully compliant with their international human rights obligations, especially Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they need to protect and support a free and independent media. While international human rights law allows the proscribing of journalist activity, this is only permissible under limited conditions. However, Israel’s targeted attacks and arbitrary arrests restrict journalist activities in a manner that goes well beyond these conditions.

The patterns of targeted killing identified both in this and previous wars are enough to warrant transparent and independent investigations. In February, five special rapporteurs from the UN Human Rights Council expressed alarm at reports of attacks on media personnel who were clearly identified through clothing and vehicles marked as “Press”. The rapporteurs stated that these attacks may indicate a “deliberate strategy” to silence reporting.

The rapporteurs stressed the right to information as a “survival right” during times of conflict and said journalists play an “indispensable role” as vital sources of information, defenders of human rights, and witnesses to atrocities. They also emphasized that targeted attacks and killings of journalists constitute a war crime and called upon the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate this pattern. 

The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders has filed two war crimes complaints with the ICC, which confirmed in January that possible offenses against Palestinian journalists would be included as part of its ongoing investigation. “Journalists are protected by international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute and must not, under any circumstances, be targeted in the exercise of their important mission,” the ICC prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

In January, the ICJ issued a ruling in which it instructed Israel to “take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence” related to the allegations of genocide. To satisfy this order, Israel would need to ensure that journalists can freely and safely report in Gaza. Reporting by journalists has historically been admitted as evidence into hearings by numerous international tribunals on genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Taken together, the killings of media personnel, combined with the blocking of international journalists from Gaza, may be considered as a violation of this order.

Journalists in the Days After

Journalists cannot end a war. But the photographs they take and the testimonies they record can help provide the international community with the information it needs to hold parties accountable—even if that accountability comes long after the fighting ends. For instance, a photograph by Ron Haviv of Serbian soldiers kicking the bodies of two Muslims whom they had assassinated was used as evidence in war crimes tribunals a decade after the atrocities were committed. His photos from that day are still being used by the families of murdered women trying to achieve justice 20 years later.

In the meantime, it is incumbent on the international community to ensure Israel upholds its international human rights obligations, which include the right to information. Thus far, states like the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany—all vocal advocates for press freedom—have taken no significant action to hold Israel accountable for the high journalist death toll, arbitrary arrests, and other forms of censorship. At most, they have called for transparent investigations, even though it is clear Israel is unwilling to undertake said investigations, as the Deadly Pattern report attests. 

ICC and ICJ submissions are important, but any process under the ICC will take years to deliver results and ICJ rulings have so far been ignored by Israel. Targeted sanctions, such as those introduced against West Bank settlers and which have been mooted against units of the Israeli military, could be applied to those involved in human rights violations against journalists and media organizations. However, these types of sanctions have only ever been used in a limited manner and with  limited effect.

Increased media access to Gaza could also, in the short term, help to provide much-needed support to journalists inside Gaza—as well as those in the West Bank and Israel—who are working to provide a clear picture of the war and its impacts. Our ability to understand the conflict depends on having a full range of media personnel who are able to report without fear or favor. Every day that goes by in which journalists are killed with impunity, arrested arbitrarily, and prevented from reporting safely is a day in which further atrocities can be committed under the veil of darkness.