Israel has killed about 250 journalists since launching its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
asserted
Israel → kill → October
That is more than the number of journalists killed in all wars in the past 150 years combined.
asserted
That → kill → years
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Israel has engaged in “the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists” that the media watchdog has ever documented.
asserted
watchdog → say → that
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asserted
documentary → slam → Bafta
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asserted
media → manufacture → genocide
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Jonathan Dagher, the head of Reporters Without Borders’ Middle East desk, called the targeting of journalists “a tragedy for journalism”, while the United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, called Gaza “a ‘death trap’ for journalists”.
asserted
chief → decide → journalists
Yet, beyond the statements and condolences, Israel has never been held accountable for its killing of Palestinian journalists – a practice that long predates the genocidal war on Gaza, but that took on an industrial scale over the past three years.
asserted
that → hold → years
Instead, the silence of the international community and lack of solidarity from Western media professionals emboldened Israel as it pursued the genocidal war and normalised journalists’ killings.
But despite trying to suppress the truth about its massacres and attempts at ethnic cleansing, Israel – historically an acknowledged master at propaganda – has largely failed in its efforts over the past three years, thanks to the bravery of the very voices it tried to silence.
asserted
it → embolden → voices
That too is the story of how journalism has changed since October 7, 2023.
asserted
journalism → change → October
‘Neutral’ amid genocide
Western media outlets and their prominent faces often claimed to be “neutral” in their coverage of the genocidal war.
asserted
outlets → claim → war
But the very concept of neutrality in journalism has come under question amid the genocide.
asserted
concept → come → genocide
The Western media were rarely neutral when viewed according to the basic tenets of journalism and professional standards.
uncertain
media → view → journalism
More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza so far.
asserted
Palestinians → kill → Gaza
But Western outlets often framed headlines in the passive tense when reporting on these killings, conveniently shielding Israel from blame.
asserted
outlets → frame → blame
Palestinians were killed by Israel, mostly in circumstances that violated rules of war.
asserted
that → kill → war
These details were not highlighted, and the Israeli narrative that Hamas was using Palestinian civilians as a “human shield” was amplified.
asserted
Hamas → highlight → shield
When Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was killed in a targeted attack in front of al-Shifa Hospital in August 2025, CNN carried the Israeli accusation that he worked for a Hamas cell in its second paragraph, an allegation Al Jazeera has rejected.
asserted
Jazeera → kill → allegation
Weeks before the killing, Irene Khan, the UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, had warned against “repeated threats and accusations” against al-Sharif by the Israeli army.
asserted
Khan → warn → army
Israel killed 22 people, including five journalists – one of whom worked for Al Jazeera – in a “double-tap” strike in September 2025.
asserted
one → kill → September
It claimed that it had targeted a “Hamas camera.”
asserted
it → claim → camera
Most media outlets ran the story.
asserted
outlets → run → story
The Reuters news agency, whose journalist was also killed in the attack, confirmed that the camera belonged to it.
asserted
camera → kill → it
Similarly, when Israel targeted media personnel in Lebanon early in the war, a Sky News post on X called it a hit on a “Hezbollah-linked” broadcaster.
asserted
post → target → broadcaster
Israel has also been accused of jailing and torturing Palestinian journalists for doing their job.
asserted
Israel → accuse → job
During the genocidal war, it has tried to control the narrative domestically too, cracking down on Haaretz for its critical coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failures on October 7, 2023, and the atrocities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
asserted
it → try → Gaza
The Netanyahu government imposed a ban on Al Jazeera, calling the network a security threat.
asserted
government → impose → network
Al Jazeera described the shutdown as a “criminal act” and warned that Israel’s suppression of the free press “stands in contravention of international and humanitarian law”.
asserted
suppression → describe → law
This was not the first time Al Jazeera has been targeted.
asserted
Jazeera → target → ?
In 2021, a Gaza building housing Al Jazeera’s office was destroyed in an Israeli missile strike.
asserted
building → house → strike
Israel has killed many Al Jazeera journalists even before October 2023.
asserted
Israel → kill → October
Shireen Abu Akleh, considered a voice of Palestine, was killed by an Israeli soldier while she was reporting in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
asserted
she → consider → 2022
Her killer was never charged for the murder.
asserted
killer → charge → murder
Assal Rad, an activist and Middle East historian, has accused the Western media of enabling attacks on journalists.
asserted
Rad → accuse → journalists
“When you’re repeating what Israel says, you’re creating space to legitimise the targeting of their own colleagues,” she said in an interview with Columbia Journalism Review on September 30.
asserted
she → repeat → September
Double standards
While reporting on Russian aggression against Ukraine, media around the world rightly humanised the victims.
asserted
media → report → victims
But that same journalistic standard was missing, far too often, when Western outlets reported on Palestinians killed by Israel.
asserted
outlets → miss → Israel
Instead, they were at times portrayed as collateral damage, their deaths the result of fighting between two sides.
asserted
deaths → portray → sides
Israel has killed more than 21,000 children in Gaza in the last three years.
asserted
Israel → kill → years
But the faces of thousands of babies, children and mothers, and their suffering and despair, were frequently buried under statistics.
asserted
faces → bury → statistics
They were nameless, faceless, their lives and stories deemed unworthy of human treatment.
asserted
lives → deem → treatment
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
