On Aug. 25, the Israeli military killed five journalists in a double-tap strike on Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip — the latest in a string of Israeli attacks that have killed or wounded journalists. The journalists who died in the Nasser attack included Mariam Dagga, a freelancer for the Associated Press; Reuters contract photographer Hussam al-Masri; Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Salama; and freelance reporters Moaz Abu Taha, who also contributed to Reuters, and Ahmed Abu Aziz, who wrote for Britain-based outlet Middle East Eye.
That strike came on the heels of Israel’s targeted killing of Al-Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif on Aug. 10. Five other journalists were also killed in that attack.
More than 195 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Other estimates put the toll higher. The vast majority are Palestinians in Gaza. The war in Gaza has killed more journalists than the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War (including the conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000s, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan, combined, according to a study by Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs’ Cost of War project.
As Israel continues to deny foreign reporters independent access to Gaza, Palestinian journalists serve as our eyes and ears on the ground. Their work is essential to the news reports of so many international media organizations, including members of the WBNG, on a defining conflict of our time. Journalists are protected as civilians under international humanitarian law and must not be targeted.
The Washington-Baltimore News Guild:
- Condemns and demands accountability for Israel’s continued killing and harassment of journalists in Gaza covering the Israel-Gaza war.
- Expresses solidarity with Palestinian journalists on the ground in Gaza, who have faced repeated displacement, deprivation, risk of bodily harm, intimidation and threats by Israeli authorities — and, in too many cases, injury or death.
- Extends its condolences to the families of the five journalists killed in the attack on Nasser Hospital as well as at least 184 others killed in Gaza.
- Calls on Israel to allow independent access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
- Calls for an international independent investigation into the circumstances of the Nasser Hospital strike and other attacks that have resulted in the deaths of journalists.