The Largest Massacre of Journalists and Media Workers in Modern History
As freelance journalists it is impossible to ignore the largest massacre of journalists and media workers ever-in-history has occurred over the last 684 days-and is ongoing. Israel is systematically eliminating Palestinian journalists because their news coverage will be used in international tribunals to demonstrate the rampant genocidal war crimes they were victim to. The statement that follows was originally posted by the National Writers Union.
On August 12, 2025, two days after Israel committed a targeted attack on a journalist tent inside the compound of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, we published a joint statement with the NewsGuild-CWA condemning the assassination of four Al Jazeera journalists and our colleagues, including Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, and Mohammed Noufal, as well as freelancers Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed Al-Khaldi. These brazen killings are the latest in the largest massacre of journalists and media workers in modern history, and therefore the most dangerous attack on the ideal of a free press in the modern era. Because of Israel’s genocidal attack on a free press, the mortality rate for journalists in Gaza is higher than U.S. soldiers in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War combined.
We have watched as the same journalistic institutions that protested the killing of Charlie Hebdo workers and the murders of Daniel Pearl and Jamal Khashoggi now stay silent while unspeakable atrocities are committed against our Palestinian colleagues. We are also disgusted, but unsurprised, by news outlets that entertain increasingly nonsensical propaganda advanced by Israeli officials to justify their crimes. Those officials published a kill list claiming Anas Al-Sharif and five others were militants in October 2024. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Al Jazeera, and the United Nations rejected those claims as unfounded.
Israel controls movement into Gaza and has barred foreign reporters from entering. We join international media organizations in speaking out against this ban. But we do not need international reporters to confirm what we’ve been shown by Palestinian journalists in video, audio, and eyewitness testimony, as well as public statements from Israeli officials: Israel is conducting a brutal genocide against a starved civilian populace for the purpose of ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.
We echo the call of the International Federation of Journalists for a binding convention of United Nations member states to provide threatened journalists with access to material protection, investigate the targeting of journalists, and bring all perpetrators to justice.
Further, we call on all journalistic institutions and allies of democracy to donate to the IFJ’s Safety Fund to support our sibling union, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. Donations can be made through NWU’s nonprofit, NWUSO. Donations protect Palestinian reporters from Israel’s violence and support efforts to ensure a thriving Palestinian media in the future.
Israel’s attacks on a free press reverberate across the world and will have a chilling effect on journalism and democracy for years to come. As long as Israel is allowed to target journalists with impunity, it will continue to do so, cutting off Palestinian voices from the world and ushering in a more violent, illiberal, and anti-democratic future. Fostering a world that values the freedom to report will not be easy. We look to the bravery of our Al Jazeera colleagues and all Palestinian journalists as we imagine a way forward.
“The Largest Massacre of Journalists and Media Workers in Modern History” by National Writers Union
