The damning assessment is in “The Reporting Graveyard”, a report by journalist Nick Turse for the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. The report documents the systematic and deadly targeting of journalists, with Gaza emerging as the most lethal environment for the press in modern history.
Since 7 October, 2023, at least 232 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to combined data from Al Jazeera, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. This figure far surpasses casualties among media personnel in any comparable period or conflict.
Of those killed, nearly all were Palestinian journalists operating under siege conditions, with some Lebanese and a small number of Israeli reporters also among the dead. Strikingly, 37 reporters were killed in the first month of Israel’s genocide alone, making it the deadliest month for journalists since CPJ began keeping records in 1992.
The study argues that the Israeli military has engaged in “a war on the press”, employing not only lethal force, but also systemic efforts to silence, smear and obstruct journalism from Gaza. At least 35 of the slain journalists were targeted directly because of their work, according to Reporters Without Borders.
The report paints a bleak picture of the media environment in Gaza. Israel has barred foreign reporters from entering the territory, leaving local journalists — often poorly resourced and constantly displaced by bombardment — to carry the burden of coverage so that the world can see what the occupation state is doing.
The Israeli military has not only destroyed nearly 90 media offices and press facilities, but also severely restricted internet access, bombed journalists’ homes, and engaged in surveillance, arrests and disinformation campaigns. Over 380 journalists have been wounded, and dozens have been detained or harassed.
The death of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa in December 2023 stands as a tragic emblem of the crisis. Wounded in an Israeli air strike, Abudaqa was left to bleed for over five hours as Israeli forces denied emergency crews access to his location. He died waiting for help, while Al Jazeera broadcast a live counter showing how long he had been abandoned.
“This is a calculated, systematic assault on the truth,” said Jonathan Dagher of Reporters Without Borders. “Israel is creating a media blackout through both bullets and bureaucracy.”
The Costs of War report situates Gaza within a broader global collapse in journalists’ safety. In 2024, more journalists were killed than in any year since records began, with Gaza accounting for the vast majority of fatalities. The United Nations has called journalism one of the most dangerous professions in the world.
But what makes Gaza unique is the sheer scale and deliberate nature of the assault on the media. At one point, an analysis found that 1 in every 10 journalists in Gaza had been killed, a proportion equivalent to 8,500 American newsroom deaths.
Foreign access remains tightly controlled. Aside from rare exceptions such as CNN’s Clarissa Ward — who entered Gaza with a UAE aid convoy — no independent Western journalists have been allowed to report freely from inside the Strip. The few press trips granted are embedded with the Israel occupation forces and highly restricted.
The Watson Institute report also highlights how smear campaigns have been deployed against Palestinian journalists, accusing them — often without evidence — of ties to resistance groups or complicity in the 7 October cross-border incursion. Others have had their social media accounts suspended or faced cyberattacks.
A panel of UN experts condemned the campaign as an “unprecedented silencing” of journalists. “These are not accidents,” said the report. “They represent a deliberate strategy to undermine war reporting and obscure the realities of the conflict.”
“The Reporting Graveyard” concludes with a stark warning: the targeting of reporters in Gaza not only kills individuals, but also undermines global access to truth, public accountability and informed democracy.
Nick Turse, the report’s author, describes the situation as a place where the press dies not only physically, but ideologically, through censorship, intimidation and indifference. In the face of this crisis, his report calls for international protections for journalists, pressure on governments to end impunity for crimes against the press, and urgent support for local reporters who remain on the front lines of war.
