Why Has the Israel-Hamas War Been So Deadly For Journalists?

As of Thursday, a staggering 24 journalists have been killed while covering the Israel-Hamas war. Sherif Mansour of the Committee to Protect Journalists appeared on this week’s episode of The Interview to discuss the why the conflict has been so dangerous for reporters covering it on the ground in Gaza.

Mansour, who serves as Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator for CPJ, a non-profit organization that defends press freedoms, discussed his work, the toll of this conflict, and its devastating impact on journalists trying to cover it.

CPJ is investigating and documenting all reports of journalists killed, wounded, detained, or missing in the region since the war was declared after the Hamas terror attack on October 7.

For the journalists who live in Gaza, their families are also at risk. On Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported that an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp in Gaza killed the wife, two young children and infant grandchild of one of its reporters. Wael al-Dahdouh, the Gaza bureau chief for Al Jazeera’s Arabic service, found out about the strike that killed so much of his family while reporting live on air.

Mansour said CPJ has covered conflicts across the globe, including the ongoing one in Gaza, yet this particular war has “the heaviest toll we’ve seen.”

“The fact that many were killed in airstrikes highlight the risk faced by journalists in Gaza,” Mansour said. “A unprecedented number of airstrikes that have taken place.”

Only one conflict is comparable, Mansour said, since CPJ started documenting in 1992: “In 2009, in the Philippines, where close to 50 journalists were killed in an ambush in one incident.”

“We have covered Syria, for example, for the last ten years, the most number of journalists killed worldwide were killed covering the Syria conflict, but at the highest it was around 30 journalists killed in 2012 and 2015, and that was over a whole year,” he explained.

Gaza is different, in part because of the aggression of the Israeli bombing campaign, which has pounded the over-crowded enclave and even struck “safe areas” where Palestinians were told to flee to. Bombs fired by Palestinian militants towards Israel sometimes fail, adding to the damage.

The majority of journalists killed have been “Palestinian photojournalists, freelance journalists who were killed covering airstrikes,” Mansour said.

“Many of the journalists have also reported losing their media facilities,” he said. “Dozens of them were bombed. Many were clustered in highrise towers that were bombed in airstrikes. Many also have lost their homes in those airstrikes or had to flee south in order to find some safety. Those numbers also include not much about what’s happening across the West Bank. And Israel already has seen recently a rise in assaults, physical assaults, efforts to disrupt coverage of journalists who are trying to cover the conflicts safer outside the lines.”

The threat for Gaza-based journalists is more than airstrikes. Mansour said journalists have contended with “exponential threats, including being arrested or detained in raids possibly, and a ground invasion. And many of them also reported lack of access to the internet or to electricity to even continue to go to work.”

Despite those statistics, Mansour stressed the importance of having journalists on the ground:

We need journalists who are inside Gaza right now because they would be our eyes to what’s happening, and in many ways we’re relying on journalists to provide timely, accurate, and independent information in time of crisis, and in time of conflict, but also in time of war to hold both warring parties accountable. We rely on them to understand the motivations behind the warring parties, and the implications of their policies. It’s not just news that will interest local populations, and it is a great interest for the safety of so many Palestinians and Israelis right now, but it is something of interest for hundreds of millions in the world who are watching this heartbreaking conflict.

On October 18, the CPJ organization urged Israel not to ban Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera from the country, fearing that comments from Israeli officials were setting the ground for a crackdown on certain media outlets.

We saw this as a proposal by one of the government officials in Israel that was cleared by legal review from one part of the government. And we are waiting to see if the war cabinet would approve it and make it operational. And it’s unprecedented. It allows the government to charge citizens, including Israeli citizens, of vague charges of harming national morale or harming or endangering national security. And it also would allow the government to shut down the broadcast of satellite and media outlets. It’s unprecedented, but it’s also not the first time the government has tried to do this.

He added that it is pivotal the news network is not shut down as it is one of the few outlets who maintain a physical presence in both Israel and Gaza.

Both Gaza and Israel and the West Bank, they even have correspondents who have been injured covering the conflict in Lebanon a week ago when a Reuters journalist was killed. [Al Jazeera] has also been one of the earliest Arab satellite stations to host Israelis on their shows. And for more than 25 years, they have been a main source of news across the region that didn’t exist before. They also are global. One of the most prominent global media organizations who cover conflict across the Middle East and in the world. And what we see here is that we want to make sure that there is a polarity of media who represent all views who can continue to operate, because this is the only way we can hold power to account in a time of war.

As for the journalists in Gaza, Mansour said it is nearly impossible for them to safely cover this war.

For many of them, unfortunately, it’s not possible to avoid an active combat situation. But we do ask any of them if they have an option to cover the situation safely. We have seen reports of journalists even stopping work after seeing their colleagues die, and some of them say they would rather die with their families right now than even take a risk while being outside. But those who continue to do so continue to do so, knowing that without them we have nothing left but disinformation and misinformation that can only fuel the conflict.

It’s not just journalists on the ground who need to be careful, Mansour said.

“Those who are covering from afar are not distant from the impact of war,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where they are, it will impact you and impact your mental health. So while we do provide some guidelines for journalists about physical security, physical safety, we also ask them to understand that trauma, vicarious trauma happens, and that it has a post-traumatic stress impact on journalists themselves.”

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