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Rabat — Following the deaths of two Palestinian journalists Monday, March 26, free press organizations have come forward with statements calling for the support of the international community in condemning Israel’s crimes against journalists working in Gaza. The two journalists — Hossam Shabat, a 23-year-old correspondent working for Al Jazeera and contributing to the online news outlet Drop Site, and Mohammed Mansour, who worked for Palestine Today — were killed in separate airstrikes on Monday.
The news of their death has been widely shared on social media. On Monday, Shabat published a photo to Instagram of Mansour with the caption, “The martyrdom of journalist Mohammad Mansour when the occupation targeted a house south of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.” Less than an hour later he himself was killed.
Following Shabat’s death, a statement published by his team on X has circulated on multiple platforms. “If you’re reading this I have been killed,” he begins. “Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
Israel’s criminalization of Palestinian journalism
According to an article published in the Times of Israel, the IDF has confirmed their hand in Shabat death, rekindling claims made in October 2024 of Shabat’s involvement in terrorist activity. These claims have not been substantiated and, in 2024, were refuted by Al Jazeera and Shabat himself.
“We convey the truth on Al Jazeera Mubasher, and we move within the areas classified by Israel as safe,” Shabat previously told the Committee to Protect Journalists in response to the IDF’s initial claims. “We are citizens, and we convey their voices. Our only crime is that we convey the image and the truth.”
International organizations committed to free press have since released statements condemning the attacks. In an article published Monday, the CPJ condemned the deaths of both Mansour and Shabat, calling for “an independent international investigation into whether they were deliberately targeted.”
Jonathan Dagher, Head of the RSF Middle East Desk, said in a statement published on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) website on Tuesday: “RSF calls on the international community to do everything in their power to pressure the Israeli authorities to instate protections for journalists in Gaza.” This statement follows four complaints lodged by RSF with the ICC for Israel’s war crimes against journalists, which the RSF identifies on their website as an “attempt to impose a ‘media blackout’ on the territory.”
The status of journalists reporting from Palestine has come under increasing attack since October 2023. The CPJ estimates the number of journalists killed in Gaza since October at 170, while other organizations like the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate place the number much higher. The Syndicate estimates that the deaths of Shabat and Mansour have brought the number of journalists killed by the IDF since October 2023 to 208.
Palestinian journalists face inhumane conditions
In a statement on the CPJ’s website, Program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York said: “The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, whose killings may have been targeted. Journalists are civilians and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone.”
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Shabat’s former editor at Drop Site, told Democracy Now! reporter Amy Goodman of the surreal violence and nightmarish working conditions journalists face to document Israel’s relentless war on Palestine. Sharing the stories other journalists working with Drop Site News, namely Rasha Abou Jalal and Abubaker Abed, Kouddous condemned the daily violence, the lack of basic necessities—food, medicine, fuel—that these journalists endure to shed light on the genocide in Gaza.
He described Shabat’s conditions as similarly insupportable, speaking highly of his work over the past months. “His ability to cover one of the most brutal military campaigns in recent history was almost beyond comprehension. He was witness to untold suffering and death almost every single day. He was often hungry, didn’t have enough food,” Kouddous recalled. “He told me he was displaced 20 times. He didn’t have anywhere to sleep. He was exhausted. And he buried many friends and many of his journalist colleagues over this time. He himself was wounded in an Israeli airstrike. Despite all of this, he somehow managed to continue reporting relentlessly every single day.”
