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By Kevin Gosztola / The Dissenter
“The Israeli army is the worst enemy of journalists,” according to a year-end analysis of attacks on global press freedom from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
RSF stated in their 2025 report [PDF], “Over the last 12 months, the Israeli army has been responsible for nearly half (43%) of all journalists killed worldwide.” Military forces specifically targeted 29 media professionals.
To emphasize this staggering statistic, RSF highlighted a double-tap strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital that occurred on August 25, 2025. Israeli forces targeted the part of the hospital that was known to “house a workspace for journalists.”
Reuters photojournalist Hossam al-Masri was killed. Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist who was contracted by the Associated Press, arrived at the scene to “report on rescue operations.” Eight minutes after the first strike, Abu Daqqa and Al Jazeera photojournalist Mohamed Salama were killed.
The double-tap strike, a war crime, also killed Moaz Abu Taha a journalist contracted by NBC, and Abu Aziz, a freelance journalist who contributed reporting to Middle East Eye.
As of December 19, 2025, at least 260 journalists have been killed by Israeli military forces carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against the people of Gaza. Military operations began in October 2023 following an attack by Hamas operatives, which the Israeli government knew about a year before it occurred but did not prevent.
In RSF’s report on 2025, Claudia Sheinbaum’s “failure to protect journalists” in Mexico and Russian drone attacks on reporters in Ukraine were described as the next biggest cause of deaths.
Nine media professionals were killed in Mexico, and three journalists in Ukraine were killed by Russia. Yet compared to Mexico and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israeli army killed more than twice as many journalists.
Sixty-seven journalists in 22 countries were specifically targeted due to their work as media professionals.
Previously, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) raised alarm when assessing journalist deaths in 2024. “At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel.”
“More than one-third – 43 – of all journalists and media workers killed were freelancers – another grim new record for self-employed members of the press who often face the most danger because they have the fewest resources,” CPJ added. “Thirty-one of those freelancers were killed in Gaza, rising from 14 in 2023. Many Gaza journalists became freelancers after their outlets were destroyed, their coverage proving crucial for global media outlets because Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Strip except on tightly controlled visits led by the military.”
International journalists are still banned from entering Gaza, unless they agree to be escorted by the Israeli military. France 24 correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky, who went on a “press tour,” told CPJ, “Everything was staged.”
“We didn’t see a single person, we couldn’t document anything. This was not journalistic work— it was theater,” Tarnopolsky further declared.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which counts the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS) as an affiliate, documented 110 journalist deaths in 2025, which is higher than the number in RSF’s report. However, a similar percentage of deaths—46 percent—occurred as a result of the Israeli army.
To illustrate Israel’s attacks on journalism, IFJ highlighted the Israeli military’s assassination of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif in August. He was targeted just prior to the invasion of Gaza City.
Al-Sharif was one of dozens of courageous journalists in Gaza, who made the ultimate sacrifice to report on the daily bloodshed. “We had two options: either stop the coverage to protect ourselves and our families from being targeted or continue the coverage. We chose to continue,” he said in October 2024.
The United States government has stood by the Israeli military as it targets and kills journalists, providing over $20 billion in arms and other military aid during the past two years.
IFJ and the National Union of French Journalists filed a lawsuit in France in early December to discourage attacks by the Israeli military on French journalists. It broadly accused the Israeli government of war crimes against the press.
The lawsuit was applauded by PJS, which has urged journalist unions throughout the world to file complaints in their national courts and urge their governments to take action to protect “all Palestinian and international journalists working in the region.”
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Kevin Gosztola
Managing editor of Shadowproof, host of the “Dissenter Weekly,” co-host of the podcast “Unauthorized Disclosure,” and member of Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)