Since Oct. 7 Israel has killed nearly 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and more than 7,000 are missing. Journalism is a well-represented former profession among the dead. Figures range between at least 95 and and least 135 for the number of journalists killed. Of all the journalists killed worldwide in 2023, 75% were in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that this has been the “deadliest period for journalists since [it] began gathering data in 1992.”

On March 18 during another bloody raid on Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, where 30,000 civilians have sought shelter, Israel arrested and tortured several Al Jazeera journalists. Israel has closed all borders for all foreign correspondents in Gaza and has also strictly censored media coverage from Gaza released in Israel since Oct. 7.

According to Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, “In Israel, you see only the soldiers, only the families of the hostages, only the scenes where you don’t see Palestinians at all. It seems as if they don’t exist.”

Refusing to be invisibilized, Palestinians continue to sacrifice their safety in order to photograph, write and report on the rapid destruction of Gaza — sometimes covering Israeli attacks of which they or their loved ones are the targets.

Here is some information about the work and deaths of a few of the journalists that have been killed.

Ahmed Shehab
Oct. 10

A journalist for Sowt Al-Asra Radio (Radio Voice of the Prisoners), Shehab dedicated his life’s work to giving Palestinian prisoners a voice behind bars, reporting on news such as hunger strikes performed by prisoners against punishment of solitary confinement. Shehab, his wife and their three children were killed by an Israeli airstrike on his house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Salam Mema
Oct. 10

Mema was the head of the Women Journalists Committee at the Palestinian Media Assembly, an organization committed to advancing media work for Palestinian women journalists. Her body was recovered from the rubble three days after her home in Jabalia was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Her three children and her husband were also killed alongside Mema. 

Issam Abdallah
Oct. 13

Abdallah, a Lebanese, Beirut-based videographer for Reuters, was killed near the Lebanon border by shelling coming from an Israeli tank. Two shell attacks 36 seconds apart, fired on Abdallah and several other journalists. They were covering the Israeli shelling near Alma Al-Shaab in southern Lebanon between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah party. The journalists were perched upon a hill, clearly visible and not in the line of fire. 

Mohammed Abu Hasira
Nov. 7

Abu Hasira, a journalist for the Palestinian Authority-run WAFA news agency, was killed in a strike on his home near Gaza City along with 42 of his family members, according to WAFA and the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate. They say Israeli bombing “targeted his house” over a period of three days. 

Hassouneh Salim & Sari Mansour
Nov. 18 

Hassouneh Salim, a Palestinian freelance photojournalist, and Sari Mansour, director of the Quds News Network were friends and work colleagues. They were killed together during an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. 

Ayat Khadoura
Nov. 20

Khadoura, a Palestinian freelance journalist and podcast presenter shared videos on social media about the situation in Gaza, including a video titled “My Last Message to the World” posted on Instagram on Nov. 6. “We had big dreams,” said Khadoura, “but our dream now is to be killed in one piece so they know who we are.” She was killed alongside an unknown number of her family members in an Israeli airstrike on her home in Beit Lahya in northern Gaza. 

Ola Atallah
Dec. 9

On Nov. 27 Atallah, a freelance Palestinian journalist, wrote an article for the Al-Morasel website about life in Gaza during the war, describing the destruction and damage to her neighborhood and city. “Trees and university buildings fell, journalists and doctors disappeared, and hospitals fell silent. Everything changed in Gaza City, even the faces of its residents. Mirrors no longer know us and we do not know them,” she wrote. Atallah was well-known on social media, and her last tweet on December 8 asked, “How many more nights of terror and death does Gaza have to count?” She and nine members of her family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the home where they were taking shelter in the El-Daraj area of Gaza City.

Samer Abu Daqqa
Dec. 15

Daqqa joined Al Jazeera in June 2004 as a cameraman and editor. While reporting near Farhana school in Khan Younis, Daqqa — along with Wael Dahdou, bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Gaza City — were attacked by an Israeli air strike. “Following Samer’s injury, he was left to bleed to death for over give hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment,” reported Al Jazeera.

Mohammed Atallah
Jan. 29 

Atallah was a 24-year-old Palestinian editor and writer for the local Al-Resalah news site and a writer for the regional independent website Raseef22. Ayman Sharrouf, Raseef22’s political editor, told CPJ that Atallah “was particularly interested in the daily life stories of the Gazans, despite the siege on Gaza, the corruption and the narrow political interests in the Strip.” He also said that an Israeli airstrike had hit Atallah’s parent’s house, killing several of his family members. “After surviving a lot of near-death situations,” Sharouf said, Atallah then evacuated to the Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza City where he and additional members of his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike.

The Indypendent is a New York City-based newspaper, website and weekly radio show. All of our work is made possible by readers like you. During this holiday season, please consider making a recurring or one-time donation today or subscribe to our monthly print edition and get every copy sent straight to your home.