Foreign journalists must not abandon their Palestinian colleagues in Gaza
People mourn the loss of Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih, killed in an Israeli attack on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Gaza, on 13 May 2025
Ghada Ageel writes in Al Jazeera on 20 May 2025:
When Israel announced on May 5 its intention to permanently reoccupy Gaza, it did not merely declare a new phase of military domination. The expansionist state also signalled an intensification of its campaign of erasure and systematic silencing.
This move should sound an alarm for every newsroom and journalist around the globe. This is not just a territorial occupation, but a war on truth. And in that war, Palestinian journalists are among the first to be targeted.
The staggering toll of media workers killed in Gaza speaks for itself. One recent report states that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the two world wars, the wars in Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia and Vietnam combined. It is the deadliest conflict for media professionals ever recorded.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, at least 222 journalists have been killed. The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) summed up this deplorable state of affairs by stating that “Israel is the greatest killer of journalists in modern history.”