99 journalists killed in 2023, 72 in Israel-Hamas War: Report

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced on Thursday that the last 12 months had been the deadliest for the media in over a decade, with 72 of the 99 journalists killed in 2023 dying in the Israel-Hamas conflict. According to the CPJ, if not for the killings in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, the number of reporter killings would have decreased annually worldwide, while deaths in Somalia and the Philippines remained constant. “In December 2023, CPJ reported that more journalists were killed in the first three months of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year,” the CPJ said. The number of deaths is up roughly 44% from 2022 and at its highest point since 2015. The organization reported that three Lebanese and two Israelis were among the 72 journalists who died in the Israel-Hamas conflict. “Journalists in Gaza are bearing witness on the frontlines,” said CPJ chief executive Jodie Ginsberg. “The immense loss suffered by Palestinian journalists in this war will have long-term impacts for journalism not just in the Palestinian territories but for the region and beyond. Every journalist killed is a further blow to our understanding of the world.” The New York-based press freedom group announced on February 7 that the death toll from the Gaza conflict had increased to 85 journalists. The CPJ has denounced what it refers to as Israeli forces’ “persecution” of journalists in the past and is currently looking into whether Israeli soldiers intentionally targeted twelve journalists who died in the Gaza battle, which would be considered “a war crime.” Following the Islamist organization’s attack on Israel on October 7, which claimed the lives of around 1,160 people, the majority of them civilians, Israel promised to destroy Hamas. In the deadliest-ever incident in the nation, around 250 people were taken captive by militants; 130 of them are thought to be still in Gaza, 29 of them are thought to be dead. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave reports that Israel’s retaliatory military onslaught on Gaza has killed at least 28,576 individuals, the majority of them women and children. The two countries with the biggest drops in journalist deaths were Mexico and Ukraine, where there were two homicides instead of 13. Along with Somalia and the Philippines, Mexico was labeled by the CPJ as “one of the world’s deadliest countries for the press.” “Compounding the situation, government agencies spy on reporters and rights defenders, and a significant number of journalists have had to leave their homes, and abandon their professions, due to violence,” the CPJ report warned.