NEW YORK, USA
The first 10 weeks of the Gaza war have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.
Most of the journalists and
media workers killed in the war - 61 out of 68 - were Palestinian. The report
said it was "particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting
of journalists and their families by the Israeli military."
Three Lebanese
journalists, including Reuters visuals journalist Issam
Abdallah, were also killed between October 7 and December 20, CPJ data showed.
The group, a nonprofit
organisation that promotes press freedom worldwide, said it was further
investigating the circumstances of all journalist deaths. It said such efforts
in Gaza were hampered by widespread destruction and by the killing of
journalists' family members, who typically serve as sources for investigators
looking into how the journalists died.
Reporting in Gaza has been
severely restricted under intense Israeli bombardment, with repeated
communications blackouts and
a lack of food, fuel and housing, said CPJ, adding that foreign journalists
have not been able to independently access the strip for most of the war.
"The Israel-Gaza war is
the most dangerous situation for journalists we have ever seen, and these
figures show that clearly," said Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and
North Africa program coordinator.
"The Israeli army has
killed more journalists in 10 weeks than any other army or entity has in any
single year. And with every journalist killed, the war becomes harder to
document and to understand."
A May report by CPJ found that
Israeli soldiers had killed at least 20 journalists in the last 22 years and
none had ever been charged or held accountable.
Earlier this month, a Reuters investigation
found an Israeli tank crew killed
Abdallah and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on October 13 by firing
two shells in quick succession from Israel while the journalists were filming
cross-border shelling.
At least 1,200 people were
killed in Israel and over 200 were taken hostage on October 7 after Hamas
launched a surprise attack, according to Israeli tallies. The group said this
came in response to decades of Israeli blockade and aggression.
Israel's relentless
bombardment of Gaza has killed 20,000 Palestinians, with thousands more
believed lost under rubble.
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