The war in Gaza that began after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel has killed more journalists than the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined, according to a new report from Brown University’s Costs of War project.
As of 26 March, at least 232 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the report states. Comparatively, the report says 69 journalists were killed across World Wars I and II. More recently, 19 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, according to the report.
“It is, quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters,” the report says of the war in Gaza while accusing the Israeli government of unleashing an “unrelenting war on the press.”
Estimates of the number of journalists killed in Gaza since October 7 vary. Costs of War based its tallies on an Al Jazeera investigation and recent updates from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). But CPJ cites a lower total number on its website, saying that “at least 173 journalists and media workers” were killed as of 31 March.
The vast majority of the reporters killed in Gaza have been local journalists. As recently as last week, two Palestinian journalists—Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour—were killed in Israeli air strikes in the coastal territory.
In a number of cases, Israel has claimed that local journalists killed during its offensive in Gaza—including Shabat—were affiliated with or members of militant groups such as Hamas, but CPJ has thrown cold water on these assertions.
CPJ has called on Israel “to stop making unproven claims that journalists slain by its forces are terrorists or engaging in militant activity, and demands international, swift, and independent investigations into these killings.” CPJ and other organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, which estimates that around 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza, have raised concerns that Israel has intentionally targeted journalists—which is a war crime—and is doing so with impunity.
In a statement last week, Reporters Without Borders called on the international community to “urgently pressure the Israeli government to end the massacre of Palestinian journalists.”
United Nations experts have also expressed alarm over “the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detained” in Gaza. The Israeli military has repeatedly stated that it does not deliberately target journalists. Israel’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With rare exceptions, Israel has prohibited foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip since the war began. News organisations and journalists around the world have urged Israel to allow foreign media into Gaza but haven’t been successful—with the Israeli government justifying the strict policy as a matter of security.
“Israel has barred independent foreign correspondents from Gaza while killing local journalists in record numbers—and without any repercussions,” the Costs of War report states.
The Costs of War project is a nonpartisan research initiative within Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs that focuses on the direct and indirect costs of US counter-terrorism efforts. The project has closely monitored US military aid to Israel.
