A collaborative investigation by international media outlets has shed light on the circumstances behind more than 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers being killed in the Gaza war, some while wearing a press vest.
The consortium led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories and involving around 50 journalists from 13 organisations – including France's AFP news agency, The Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism – took part in the four-month probe.
It looked into strikes involving journalists and media infrastructure since Israel launched its devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas carrying out an unprecedented attack in Israel on 7 October.
"More than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed," Forbidden Stories' Laurent Richard said in an editorial accompanying the Gaza Project's publication.
"Today's Gaza journalists have long known that their 'press' vests do not protect them," he wrote.
"Worse still, the protective gear might further expose them".
🔴 How are Israeli drones killing journalists in Gaza?
— Forbidden Stories (@FbdnStories) June 25, 2024
For the #GazaProject, 50 journalists from 13 international newsrooms coordinated by @FbdnStories investigated the targeting of those who were covering the war. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Ew76ux9OCx
Carlos Martinez de la Serna, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, expressed shock at the toll.
"This is one of the most flagrant attacks on press freedom that I remember," he told the investigation.
The Israeli military said it "does not intentionally harm journalists, and that journalists may have been harmed during air strikes or operational activities aimed at military targets".
"Many of the cases mentioned in the report are actually cases of militants who were killed during military activity, but reported as journalists," it added.
'Supposed to identify and protect us'
The probe found that four journalists were allegedly killed or wounded by a drone while wearing a press vest.
Fourteen in total were killed, wounded or allegedly targeted while wearing their protective gear describing them as a member of the "press".
At least 40 journalists and media workers were killed while at home in Gaza, it added.
"Whereas the press vest was supposed to identify and protect us according to international laws ... it is now a threat to us," said Basel Khair al-Din, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who believes he was targeted by a drone strike while wearing a press vest.
The Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism group also surveyed 239 surviving journalists from 6 June to 16 June and found that more than 200 had been displaced from their homes by the war.
Seventy-two said they had lost family members.
Of those, 11 reported their own children had been killed.
'Completely unacceptable'
As part of the probe, AFP looked with other media into a strike on its Gaza bureau on 2 November, after its staff had evacuated but while it was still broadcasting a livestream of the war from a camera on its balcony.
They found the strike to likely have been caused by an Israeli tank.
The Israeli military has said the bureau was not targeted but damage to it could have been caused by a "shock wave or shrapnel" from another attack.
AFP's global news director Phil Chetwynd has called for a "very clear and transparent investigation" from the Israeli authorities into the incident.
He also said that more than 100 journalists and media workers having been killed in the Gaza Strip in such a short time was "completely unacceptable".
"And the thing that worries me most is that it's not causing a scandal. Around the world I don't see the voices of the various governments complaining," he added.
Shuruq Asad, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate, said more than 70 media offices had been bombed since the start of the war and she too was taken aback by the lack of global outrage.
"I don't think this would be the reaction of the world if there was 100 Ukrainian journalists killed," she said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
