Gaza now deadliest place for journalists, report finds, as over 230 killed since October 2023
With Israel barring foreign media from entering Gaza, local reporters have shouldered the entire burden of documenting the war, often without protective gear, medical assistance, or institutional support, and while under constant threat of airstrikes.
Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world for journalists, according to a new report that reveals at least 232 journalists and media workers have been killed there since October 7, 2023.
The report, "The Reporting Graveyard", published by Brown University’s Costs of War Project, describes the Gaza war as the most lethal conflict for the press in modern history, surpassing journalist deaths in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, and the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
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“This war has created the most dangerous environment for journalists we’ve ever seen,” the report states. The number of media workers killed in Gaza now exceeds the total killed during the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, and post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined.”
The overwhelming majority of those killed have been Palestinian journalists.
With Israel barring foreign media from entering Gaza, local reporters have shouldered the entire burden of documenting the war, often without protective gear, medical assistance, or institutional support, and while under constant threat of airstrikes.
One of the most tragic incidents occurred in December 2023, when Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa died from his wounds after being hit by an Israeli drone strike while filming in Khan Younis.
Delayed rescue
Rescue efforts were hindered by ongoing shelling and a lack of clearance from Israeli forces, which delayed ambulances.
His colleague, Wael Dahdouh, was seriously injured in the same strike. In subsequent air raids, Dahdouh lost his wife, son, daughter, grandson, and another colleague.
“In the first 10 weeks of the war, Israel killed more journalists than any other country or group has in a full year since 1992,” said Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The report estimates that nearly one in ten journalists in Gaza has been killed.
“That would be equivalent to wiping out 8,500 journalists in the United States in a single year,” it further notes.
In addition to the killings, nearly 380 journalists have been injured.
Others have been detained, displaced, or targeted through smear campaigns, cyberattacks, and accusations of collaborating with Hamas.
Journalistic infrastructure destroyed
The report also documents the destruction of journalistic infrastructure.
More than 90 press offices have been bombed or reduced to rubble, and repeated internet blackouts have further severed communication.
The few foreign journalists who have entered Gaza—such as CNN’s Clarissa Ward—have done so under tight military oversight or through guided tours, restricting independent reporting.
“This is not just a record. It is a crisis. The scale of the killings has made Gaza the deadliest conflict for the press in modern history,” the report says.
Beyond Gaza, the report warns of a global escalation in violence against journalists. Since 2000, over 1,683 journalists have been killed worldwide. In 2024 alone, one journalist was killed every three days. War-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan continue to pose extreme risks for the press.
“These journalists are not just victims. They are witnesses, and silencing them is a deliberate act to control the narrative,” said Courtney Radsch, director of the Centre for Journalism and Liberty.
The report also underscores the collapse of traditional war reporting. As mainstream newsrooms shrink, local and freelance journalists are left to cover dangerous conflicts with limited resources.
Since 2005, more than 43,000 newsroom jobs have been lost in the U.S. alone, and nearly 3,300 newspapers have shut down.
The consequences, the report warns, are far-reaching. With fewer reporters and less access, the truth becomes harder to verify, and misinformation takes hold.
Some war zones are turning into what the report calls “news graveyards”—places where journalists are killed or silenced, and where the truth dies with them.
“If we allow the deaths of these journalists to go unanswered,” Turse writes, “we risk losing the truth in every war zone that follows.”
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