Shruti Rajkumar
Wed, October 18, 2023
The number of journalists killed while covering the Israel-Hamas war has risen to at least 17 as of early Wednesday morning, marking a jump from the death toll reported last week.
On Oct. 7, Hamas, a militant group located in Gaza, launched a massive attack on Israel, prompting Israel to retaliate by launching strikes at the blockaded Gaza Strip and declaring war.
The ongoing Israeli-Hamas war has become the deadliest of the five Gaza wars on both sides, with more than 1,400 Israelis and 2,000 Palestinians dead. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, thousands were injured and dozens are being held captive.
The casualties have included journalists who were on the scene covering the war and shedding light on the horrific events that have unfolded, which has become especially important amid the spread of misinformation online.
Less than a week into the war, at least 10 journalists had been killed on Thursday. Now, at least 17 journalists — 13 Palestinian, three Israeli, one Lebanese — have died, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
On Oct. 13, Beirut-based videographer for Reuters Issam Abdallah was killed in a shelling attack near the Lebanon border while filming cross-border fires between Israel and Lebanon. Witnesses at the scene said the shell that killed Abdallah was from Israel. According to the Guardian, Israeli authorities have said that they are investigating what happened.
“I urge all parties in this conflict to respect and work with all media to ensure the safety of journalists reporting in the region,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Gallon said in a statement on Monday. “[Abdallah] was an experienced, talented and passionate journalist who was much loved by his colleagues here at Reuters. He was just doing his job when he was killed.”
That same day, an Israeli airstrike killed Husam Mubarak, a journalist for the Hamas-affiliated Al Aqsa Radio, in the Gaza Strip. Salam Mema, a freelance journalist, was confirmed dead after her body was pulled from the rubble of her home in the Jabalia Camp, struck by an Israeli airstrike three days prior. Mema was also the head of the Women Journalists Committee at the Palestinian Media Assembly, an organization dedicated to advancing the work of Palestinian journalists.
On Oct. 17, two journalists were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Those journalists were Mohammad Balousha, a journalist and the administrative and financial manager of the media channel “Palestine Today” office in Gaza and Al-Aqsa TV journalist Issam Bhar.
According to CPJ, as of Wednesday, eight journalists were reported injured, and three were reported missing or detaine
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