On eve of World Press Freedom Day, Gaza mourns death of over 140 journalists in Israeli attacks

By Mohammed Majed

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 141 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed and 70 others injured in Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, the government media office said on Thursday.

In a statement marking the World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the media office said at least 20 journalists are still held in Israeli prisons.

“This is part of the genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation army against civilians, especially children and women in the Gaza Strip,” it added.

The media office held Israel and the US “fully responsible for the Israeli crimes against journalists and media professionals.”

It called on the international community to “protect Palestinian journalists and pressure the Israeli occupation to stop its genocidal war against journalists, civilians, children, women, and the Palestinian people.”

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Palestinian enclave since a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7, which killed some 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,800 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul