Photos: Israel-Gaza war takes unprecedented toll on journalists

The Israel-Gaza war has been devastating for civilians, including journalists covering the conflict. While a few conflicts have taken the lives of hundreds of journalists over a period of years, no other war has taken so many journalists’ lives in such a short time span, according to CPJ data that has been gathered since 1992. Here are images of journalists working under extreme, heartbreaking, and sometimes fatal circumstances to cover the fighting that began when Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 and Israel declared war on the militant Palestinian group, launching air strikes and ground raids on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

AFP video journalist Dylan Collins pushes the wheelchair of AFP photojournalist Christina Assi as she carries the Olympic flame on July 21 during the Olympic Torch Relay near Paris. Assi and Collins were injured in an attack by an Israeli tank on a group of journalists in southern Lebanon on October 13, 2023, that killed Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah. (Photo: AFP/Mauro Pimentel)

A journalist holds his head after being attacked by participants of the annual Jerusalem Day march by Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on June 5, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad)

A female journalist comforts a distressed woman as injured and killed Palestinians are brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, following the Israeli bombardment of a residential apartment in Deir al-Balah and an area of al-Maghazi, on June 8, 2024. (Photo: AFP/Bashar Taleb)

Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary inspects a tent at a makeshift camp for displaced people in front of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, after it was hit by Israel bombardment on March 31, 2024. (Photo: AFP)

AFP’s Gaza-based Palestinian photographer Mahmud Hams documents buildings destroyed in Israeli bombardment at the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 2, 2023. (Photo: AFP)

A relative mourns Palestinian journalist Akram ElShafie, who succumbed on January 5 to bullet wounds following an Israeli attack on October 30. (Photo: AP/Hatem Ali)

A person holds a placard during a Cape Town, South Africa, vigil on January 28 to remember journalists killed and injured in the Israel-Gaza war. (Photo: Reuters/Esa Alexander)

Palestinians inspect the remains of a car in which Palestinian journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were killed on January 7. (Photo: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

An Israeli border police vehicle is seen outside the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank on November 29. Israel became one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists in 2023, according to CPJ’s annual prison census report. (AFP/Fadel Senna)

Agence France Presse employees hold portraits in support of AFP joiurnalists working in Gaza at a January 17 gathering on the balconies and in front of windows at the agency’s headquarters on Paris. (AFP/Bertrand Guay)

As smoke rises during an Israeli military bombardment of the northern Gaza Strip on November 15, telecommunications companies warn of a blackout throughout the Gaza Strip due to dwindling fuel supplies. On November 16, news sources reported that a telecommunications blackout had begun. (AFP/Fadel Senna)

The camera that belonged to Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed on October 13 by what a Reuters investigation has found was an Israeli tank crew, is displayed during a December 7 press conference by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in Beirut as they released findings from their investigations into the deadly strikes by Israel on southern Lebanon. (Reuters/Emilie Madi)

During a November 22 funeral procession, Manal Jaafar reacts as she hugs a photo of her husband Rabih Al Maamari, a cameraman for Al-Mayadeen TV who was killed along with correspondent Farah Omar by an Israeli strike on November 21 in Lebanon. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

The protective vest of one of two Al-Mayadeen TV journalists killed by an Israeli strike lies on the ground at the Lebanese border village of Tayr Harfa near the border with Israel, Tuesday, November 21, 2023. (AP/Mohammed Zinaty)

Protesters display the names and photographs of journalists killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, as they take part in a demonstration to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza near Place de la Republique in Paris, on November 11, 2023. (AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff)

Journalists work after an Israeli raid in the Israeli-occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp on November 9. (Reuters/Raneen Sawafta)

Al-Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Youmna El Sayed talks with AJ+, a social media and storytelling project of Al-Jazeera, about how she explains the risks and violence of the Israel-Gaza war to her children. El Sayed has been covering the war since it began on October 7, 2023. (Screenshot: X/AJ+)

Relatives and colleagues of Palestinian journalists Hassouneh Salim and Sari Mansour, killed in an Israeli airstrike, mourn over their bodies during their funeral in Deir al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 19, 2023. (AFP/Bashar Taleb)

Israeli forces and journalists take cover in southern Israel as a siren warns of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on November 5. The warnings sounded in an area where hundreds of burned and destroyed vehicles were placed after they were damaged in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. (AP/Leo Correa)

Mourners attend the November 3 funeral of Palestinian journalist Mohammed Abu Hatab, who was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip on November 2, 2023. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

Colleagues comfort photographer David Dee Delgado as he speaks in New York City on November 6, 2023, during a vigil honoring journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war. (Stephanie Keith for CPJ)

“We can’t take it any more:” Palestine TV reporter Salman Al Bashir (left) and a Palestine TV anchor are overcome with emotion after learning on air of the death of their colleague Mohammed Abu Hatab, who was killed on November 2, 2023, along with 11 members of his family, in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip. (Screenshot: YouTube/The Guardian)

Palestinian medics treat an injured Palestinian journalist, during an Israeli raid in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on November 9, 2023. (Reuters/Raneen Sawafta)

Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Aloul carries the body of his child, killed on November 5, 2023, in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at the hospital in Deir al Balah. (AP/Fatima Shbair)

A Palestinian journalist comfort his niece wounded in an Israeli strike on her family home in Nusseirat refugee camp, in a hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip, on October 22, 2023. (AP/Ali Mahmoud)

Palestinian journalists and others gather around the bodies of two Palestinian reporters, Mohammed Sobh and Saeed al-Taweel, who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. (AP/Fatima Shbair)

Israeli journalists take cover during a rocket attack from Gaza in southern Israel on October 10, 2023. (AFP/Jack Guez)

Abir, sister of Issam Abdallah, a Reuters video journalist who was killed in southern Lebanon during an Israeli airstrike, holds her aunt during a candlelight vigil in Beirut on October 20, 2023. (Reuters/Amr Alfiky)

AFP journalist Dylan Collins speaks on his mobile phone after being injured by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, 2023. The Israeli strikes, later determined to be targeted attacks, killed Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah and wounded six other journalists. (Photo: AP/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinian journalist Moataz Mashal becomes overwhelmed as he covers the bombardment of Gaza on October 9, 2023. (Screenshot: Palestine Online/X)

Journalists watch Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 8, 2023. (AP/Fatima Shbair)

Iraqi Reuters journaist Thaer Al-Sudani, who was injured by Israeli shelling, attends an October 14 funeral procession for his colleague videographer Issam Abdallah, killed in the same shelling in southern Lebanon on October 13, 2023. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

Journalist Israel Frey posts a video after going into hiding when far-right Israelis attacked his home on October 16, 2023, angered by his commentary on the war. (Screenshot: YouTube/Middle East Eye)

On October 26, Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Al Dahdouh mourns over the bodies of his family, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in central Gaza Strip on October 25, 2023. (Still image from video: Al-Jazeera/Reuters)

A journalist’s car burns after it was hit by Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon on October 13, 2023. Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah was killed during the shelling. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

A boy holds a portrait of Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah during a protest in front of the United Nations headquarters in Beirut on October 15, 2023. Abdallah was killed two days earlier when an Israeli shell landed in a gathering of international journalists covering clashes on the border in southern Lebanon. (AP/Hassan Ammar)

Journalists take cover behind cars as Israeli soldiers take position during clashes with Hamas attackers near the border with Gaza on October 7, 2023. About 1,200 Israelis were killed and about 240 taken hostage during the militant group’s unprecedented cross-border assault on that day. (AFP/Oren Ziv)

Palestinian journalists attend a gathering on October 10, 2023, in the occupied West Bank to denounce the killing of journalists. (AFP/Zain Jaafar)

Israeli army tanks and buldozers cross the border into Gaza on October 29, 2023. Fighting between Israeli and Hamas forces, communications interruptions, and food and water shortages continue to put civilians, including journalists, at high risk. (AFP/Menahem Kahana)

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

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