𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐚𝐳𝐚’𝐬 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬: 𝐈𝐬𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥

 This is the most lethal war for the media in recent times. A generation of journalists is being wiped out

Sun 31 Aug 2025 18.30 CEST

Day by day, the death toll rises, the war crimes mount, and the outrage grows. Last Wednesday, the pope demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of Gaza’s population. A day later, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, warned that “the levels of death and destruction … are without parallel in recent times”. More than 500 UN staff have pressed the human rights chief, Volker Türk, to call it genocide. Half of registered voters in the US have already concluded that that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.

The agony is deepening. On Friday, the Israeli military declared famine-hit Gaza City to be a combat zone, intensifying its assault and ending “tactical pauses” that allowed limited – if utterly inadequate – food delivery. Many inhabitants are physically incapable of fleeing again, and fear that they would be no safer elsewhere. Israel has attacked parts of areas that it has labelled as “humanitarian zones”.

Israel could end the international condemnation by stopping its campaign of annihilation. Instead, it tries to stop us learning about it, by silencing those who bear witness. It is determined to control the narrative of the war – though even its own figures at times offer a bleak view of conditions – and will go to shocking lengths. This has become the most lethal war for the media in recent history. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 189 Palestinian journalists are dead in Gaza; others put the toll still higher. Five were killed in a single strike last week.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Avaaz, a non-profit organisation promoting global activism, are calling on Israel to abide by its international obligations to protect journalists as civilians, and open Gaza’s borders so that international journalists can report freely.

The Guardian is printing the names of all of those whom the CPJ has listed as killed: women and men such as Fatma Hassona, Hamza al-Dahdouh and Anas al-Sharif, admired for their work and, of course, dearly loved as daughters, fathers, sisters and friends. These are deeply personal losses. But they also represent a generation of journalists that is being wiped out and cannot be replaced.

“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed,” warned Thibaut Bruttin, RSF’s director general.

The civilian death toll in Gaza is staggering, and journalists are put at particular risk when they run to danger to report as others try to escape. But the killing of so many who have been clearly identified as members of the media, in some cases after they were threatened over their work or smeared, leaves no doubt that they have been targeted. This is “the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented”, the organisation has said. “Palestinian journalists are being threatened, directly targeted and murdered by Israeli forces, and are arbitrarily detained and tortured in retaliation for their work.”

Journalists in Gaza work in unbearable conditions – hungry and exhausted, breaking off reporting to find food for their families, help carry bodies from rubble or assist wounded relatives in finding shelter. Many are separated from those they love; many have buried loved ones. All know that in bearing witness, they increase the danger that they face. They carry on to defend the truth against Israel’s attempts to extinguish it. They must be defended themselves.