Israel attacks press as ‘silencing’ policy: Palestinian journalists union

Israel attacks press as ‘silencing’ policy: Palestinian journalists union Syndicate report says Israeli forces have systematically targeted journalists to undermine Palestinian narrative. Israel’s systematic campaign of violence against Palestinian journalists since October 2023 has peaked in 2025 with the targeting of dozens of members of the press, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate says. In a statement released on Friday, the Freedoms Committee of the syndicate said Israel is implementing a policy of “silencing the press through killing, injury and permanent disability”. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Palestinian doctors graduate in ruins of Gaza’s destroyed al-Shifa Hospital list 2 of 3 Trump could unveil Gaza ‘peace council’, ‘government’ soon: Israeli media list 3 of 3 Israel becomes first country to recognise Somaliland “The Israeli occupation shifted from a policy of restricting journalistic work to a policy of neutralising the press through deadly force, with the aim of silencing witnesses, preventing the documentation of crimes, and undermining the Palestinian narrative on the ground,” the statement said. By the end of November 2025, at least 76 Palestinian journalists had been killed and wounded by Israel, a figure the committee described as a “dangerous indicator of the escalating targeting policy” pursued by Israeli authorities. “Journalists are no longer merely ‘potential targets’, but rather confirmed and frequent targets,” the committee said. Over the past year, Israel killed several journalists in Gaza in targeted assassinations - most notably Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif - falsely claiming that they are members of Hamas. Press freedom groups have been condemning the Israeli attacks on journalists, but the killings have proceeded with impunity. Israel has never arrested or charged any of its troops for killing journalists. While the targeting of the press intensified during the genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has killed dozens of Arab journalists over the past two decades, including Al Jazeera’s veteran correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank in 2022. Muhammad al-Lahham, head of the Committee for Freedoms at the syndicate, said the scale and consistency of the attacks amount to international crimes. The events of the past year, he said, “constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, and represent a systematic targeting of a protected group, journalists, within the framework of an official policy to silence the media by force”. Al-Lahham rejected claims that journalists had been caught accidentally in hostilities, describing instead a deliberate operational logic. What Israel was enforcing, he said, was a “field doctrine based on the principle of ‘no witnesses, no narrative, no image'”. In December, a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found that Israel killed more journalists in 2025 than any other country. Silencing witnesses The report described 2025 as “a year of repeated mass targeting, particularly in tents, hospitals, and press gatherings”, warning that Palestine had become one of the most dangerous places in the world to practise journalism. Several Al Jazeera journalists have been among those killed, in some cases alongside members of their families. In August, Israeli attacks killed al-Sharif...

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