Israel’s war on journalists
Polygraph | Newsletter n°261 | 2 August 2024
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Situation
On Wednesday, Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi, a journalist and cameraman with Al Jazeera, were killed in an Israeli airstrike while driving in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. The two were wearing media vests and their car was clearly marked as a press vehicle when it was hit by at least one guided missile fired from an Israeli drone. Israel claimed they were Hamas (predictable) but hasn’t provided any evidence to support that claim (also predictable). A nearby child named Khalid Shawa was also killed in the strike.
The data
The aforementioned case is part of a systematic pattern of attacks. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) tracks and investigates press workers killed in the line of duty worldwide. I used CPJ data for the chart below. Of the 125 journalists and media workers killed globally since October 7, I found that 108 (86%) were killed by Israeli forces. In other words, the Israeli military has killed over six times more members of the press than the rest of the world combined.
Nearly all deaths occurred in Gaza. One journalist was killed in the West Bank, and three were killed in Lebanon.1
The names
Abdallah Alwan, Abdallah Iyad Breis, Abdelhalim Awad, Abdul Rahman Saima, Abdulhadi Habib, Abdullah Darwish, Adel Zorob, Adham Hassouna, Ahmad Jamal al Madhoun, Ahmed Abu Mhadi, Ahmed Al-Qara, Ahmed Bdeir, Ahmed Fatima, Ahmed Khaireddine, Ahmed Shehab, Akram ElShafie, Alaa Al-Hams, Amro Salah Abu Hayah, Angam Ahmad Edwan, Assaad Shamlakh, Assem Al-Barsh, Assem Kamal Moussa, Ayat Khadoura, Ayman Al-Gharbawi, Ayman Al-Rafati, Bahaa Okasha, Bilal Jadallah, Duaa Jabbour, Duaa Sharaf, Farah Omar, Hamza Al Dahdouh, Haneen Kashtan, Hassan Farajallah, Hassouneh Salim, Heba Al-Abadla, Hisham Alnwajha, Husam Mubarak, Ibrahim Al-Gharbawi, Ibrahim Marzouq, Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi, Imad Al-Wahidi, Ismail Al-Ghoul, Issam Abdallah, Issam Bhar, Iyad El-Ruwagh, Iyad Matar, Jabr Abu Hadrous, Jamal Al-Faqaawi, Jamal Mohamed Haniyeh, Khalil Abu Aathra, Mahmoud Juhjouh, Majd Fadl Arandas, Majed Kashko, Mohamad Al-Bayyari, Mohamad Al-Iff, Mohamed Abu Hassira, Mohamed Abu Skheil, Mohamed Al Jaja, Mohamed Azzaytouniyah, Mohamed El-Reefi, Mohamed Fayez Abu Matar, Mohamed Jamal Sobhi Al-Thalathini, Mohamed Khalifeh, Mohamed Mouin Ayyash, Mohamed Nabil Al-Zaq, Mohamed Naser Abu Huwaidi, Mohamed Yaghi, Mohammad Balousha, Mohammad Jarghoun, Mohammed Abu Hatab, Mohammed Al Jamal, Mohammed Al-Salhi, Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Atallah, Mohammed Imad Labad, Mohammed Sobh, Montaser Al-Sawaf, Mossab Ashour, Mostafa Bakeer, Mostafa El Sawaf, Muhammad Salama, Mustafa Ayyad, Mustafa Thuraya, Nafez Abdel Jawad, Nazmi Al-Nadim, Ola Al Dahdouh, Ola Atallah, Rabih Al Maamari, Rami Al Refee, Rizq Al-Gharabli, Roshdi Sarraj, Saed Al-Halabi, Saeed al-Taweel, Saher Akram Rayan, Salam Mema, Salem Abu Toyour, Salma Mkhaimer, Sameeh Al-Nady, Samer Abu Daqqa, Sari Mansour, Shaima El-Gazzar, Yaacoub Al-Barsh, Yahya Abu Manih, Yasser Abu Namous, Yasser Mamdouh El-Fady, Yazan al-Zuweidi, Yousef Maher Dawas, Zayd Abu Zayed.
^per CPJ.
^Alt text for screen readers: Nearly 9 out of 10 journalists killed since October 7 were killed by Israel. This pie chart shows the 108 journalists killed by Israeli forces and the 17 killed by everybody else. Data: Committee to Protect Journalists, cpj dot org, accessed 2 August 2024. Figures include media workers.
*Note: You may have seen different numbers reported elsewhere. This doesn’t mean that source is wrong — it’s just that CPJ’s verification process takes a while and its methodology limits (rightly or wrongly) what cases are considered.
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-Stephen (Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Bluesky)
Two Israeli journalists died on October 7. These fatalities are excluded from the chart above because they were killed by Hamas fighters.