By David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work last year, two-thirds of them killed by Israel, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.
It was the second straight year that press killings set a record and the second straight year that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of them, the CPJ, a New York-based independent organization which documents attacks on the press, said in its annual report.
Israeli fire killed 86 journalists in 2025, mostly Palestinians in Gaza but also including 31 workers in an attack on a Houthi media centre in Yemen, the second deadliest attack the CPJ has ever recorded, it said.
Israel was also responsible for 81% of the 47 killings that the CPJ classified as intentionally targeted, or “murder”. It said the actual figure was probably higher due to access restrictions that made verification difficult in Gaza.
Israel’s military says its troops in Gaza target only combatants, but that operating in combat zones carries inherent risks. Israel acknowledged targeting the media centre in Yemen in September, describing it at the time as a propaganda arm of the Houthis.
In several cases Israel has acknowledged targeting journalists in Gaza it said had links to Hamas, without providing verifiable evidence. International news organisations have strongly denied that slain reporters had links to militants. The CPJ called such allegations by Israel “deadly smears”.
A statement from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it “strongly rejects” the claims presented in the CPJ report.
“The IDF does not intentionally harm journalists or their family members,” it said. “The report is based on general allegations, data of unknown origin, and predetermined conclusions, without considering the complexity of combat or the IDF’s efforts to mitigate harm to non-combatants.”
MOST JOURNALISTS KILLED IN CONNECTION WITH CONFLICT
Israel does not permit foreign journalists to enter Gaza, so all the media workers killed there were Palestinians.
The CPJ report said the “Israeli military has now committed more targeted killings of the press than any other government’s military on record”, noting that the CPJ started collecting data more than three decades ago.
Its report said at least 104 of the 129 journalists killed died in connection with conflicts. Apart from Gaza and Yemen, the deadliest countries for journalists include Sudan, where nine were killed, and Mexico, where six died. Four Ukrainian journalists were killed by Russian forces and three journalists died in the Philippines, it said.
Russia’s embassy in Washington did not respond specifically to the CPJ report, but referred to past Russian Foreign Ministry statements accusing Kyiv of responsibility for the deaths of more than 60 individuals working in Russian media since 2014.
Russia has previously denied deliberately targeting journalists and Ukraine denies targeting Russian reporters.
Those killed in Gaza last year included Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri, killed by Israeli fire in August while operating a live video feed at the enclave’s Nasser Hospital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he regretted the attack, which also killed four other journalists, as a “tragic mishap”.
The Israeli military had said it targeted a Hamas camera, but a Reuters investigation found the device belonged to Reuters.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Editing by Don Durfee, Nia Williams and Aidan Lewis)
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