2024 deadliest year for journalists; media claims most killed by Israel’s military

In October, the IDF said that six Al Jazeera journalists were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that more journalists were killed in 2024 than in any previous year since it began keeping records. The organization attributed most of these deaths to Israel’s military.

According to CPJ statistics, 124 journalists and media workers were killed while on the job, with 70% of the deaths linked to Israeli military actions.

The year 2024 surpassed the previous record of 113 journalist deaths in 2007, when half of the fatalities resulted from coverage of the Iraq War.

Outside of Gaza and Lebanon, journalists were also killed in Sudan (6), Pakistan (6), Mexico (5), Syria (4), Myanmar (3), Iraq (3), and Haiti (2).

CPJ stated that these journalists were killed in connection with their work and asserted that 24 of them were deliberately targeted in 2024.

The organization cited Al Jazeera, which claimed that the killing of journalists was part of a systematic campaign targeting the network’s reporters and their families.

However, there have been multiple instances where journalists were found to be working alongside terrorists or were suspected of having direct ties to terrorist organizations.

In June, the IDF released a statement asserting that freed hostages Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv had been held by journalist Abdallah Aljamal and his family at their home in a central Gaza camp.

According to Euro-Med, Aljamal resided on the first floor of a multi-story building, while the IDF discovered that the hostages were found on the third floor.

In October, citing documents uncovered in Gaza, the IDF said that six Al Jazeera journalists were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The IDF stated on X (formerly Twitter) that it had obtained documents and intelligence information revealing that the six journalists—Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, Alaa Abdul Aziz Muhammad Salama, Hossam Basel Abdul Karim Shabat, Ashraf Sami Ashour Saraj, Ismail Farid Muhammad Abu Omar, and Talal Mahmoud Abdul Rahman Aruki—were affiliated with Palestinian terrorist groups. The IDF argued that these revelations cast doubt on the credibility and impartiality of Al Jazeera’s reporting in Gaza.

Additionally, according to HonestReporting, journalists working for Reuters, AP, and other media outlets were present with Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacres and encouraged others to take part.

One such journalist, Ashraf Amra, who had been working for Reuters and AP, was recorded viewing and appearing to enjoy another photojournalist’s footage of an IDF soldier being lynched.

In the footage, two journalists recall how they infiltrated Israel’s border and laugh as they describe how the soldier’s body was mutilated and brutalized even after his death.