United Nations experts have expressed outrage at the killing of six Palestinian journalists, including two women, in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza over the past 10 days, bringing the total number of media workers killed since the start of the conflict to at least 248 — the highest toll ever recorded in a modern war.
Among those killed on 25 August in two strikes on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza was Mariam Abu Daqqa, a visual journalist freelancing for the Associated Press. Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Salama, freelance journalist Moaz Abu Taha, Reuters photojournalist Hussam al-Masri, and Ahmed Abu Aziz, who worked with several outlets including Middle East Eye, also lost their lives in the same attacks.
On 31 August, Islam Abed, a correspondent for Al-Quds Today TV, was killed in a strike on a residential building in Gaza City, where her husband and child also reportedly died.
In a strongly worded statement, the UN experts condemned the killings, accusing Israel of silencing the last remaining voices documenting the conflict. “On the one hand, Israel continues to deny access to any international media and on the other, it kills with impunity local journalists who are the world’s only professional lens into the agony of genocide and famine unfolding in Gaza,” they said.
They highlighted the extreme conditions faced by local reporters, who continue to work despite being displaced, starving, and targeted. “Even as the journalists starve, lose family members, sleep in tents and get targeted by the Israeli military like the rest of Gaza’s population, they have continued to courageously bear witness to atrocities committed by the Israeli military,” the statement read.
The latest killings come amid Israel’s intensified military operations in Gaza City and follow the deliberate targeting of six other journalists, including Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Anas Al-Sharif, near Al Shifa Hospital less than two weeks ago.
The experts called for “independent criminal investigations into the killings and attacks on journalists in Gaza and across the Palestinian territory and full reparation and justice for their families,” stressing the need to end what they described as Israel’s “unprecedented impunity.”
They further demanded that Israel grant international media full and unhindered access to Gaza, noting that foreign reporters’ presence could offer some protection for local journalists while ensuring that news continues to reach the global public.
“We urge the international community – member states as well as the key organs of the United Nations – to act without delay before Israel shuts down the last voices in Gaza,” the experts warned, adding that they remain in contact with the Israeli government over the matter.
UN Experts Condemn Killing of Six More Palestinian Journalists in Gaza Strikes
