Why Documenting Journalist Deaths in Gaza Matters and the Human Toll Behind the Numbers

September 06, 2025 – Palestine –

An unassuming Excel spreadsheet has become one of the most haunting symbols of war: a meticulously documented record listing the names, dates, and places of 198 journalists killed in Gaza since October 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) maintains this file, which now serves simultaneously as a memorial and as vital evidence of the unprecedented scale of media worker casualties.

The first entry memorializes Ibrahim Marzouq, a logistics staffer at Gaza’s Palestine Today TV, who perished along with his family in an airstrike on October 24, 2023. The most recent victims include five journalists from major international outlets—AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and Middle East Eye—who were killed by tank fire in a “double-tap” strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Notably, Reuters had informed the Israel Defense Forces of its cameraman’s whereabouts beforehand, but the warning failed to spare him.

Sara Qudah, CPJ’s MENA regional director, emphasized that Israel often attributes these deaths to Hamas affiliation. “But they were all journalists,” she stressed, calling out a troubling double standard: local media workers are bearing the brunt of violence while the international community looks away.

Beyond the spreadsheet lies a digital wall of remembrance—rows of verified names etched in records but lost from Gaza’s streets and screens. The UN’s human rights office has called these killings not only tragic but a wake-up call that demands action and accountability. Jodie Ginsberg, CPJ’s leader, points out that justice via Israeli-led investigations has been consistently elusive: “Not a single case in 24 years has seen meaningful accountability.”

For advocates of press freedom, these documents are not abstract statistics—they are urgent evidence. The deaths of these journalists amplify the broader collapse of independent reporting in Gaza. The spreadsheet—and the stories it holds—say, plainly: once the truth-tellers are silenced, the world is left blind.

Reference – 

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2613925/media

Why documenting the deaths of journalists in Gaza is critical to ensuring justice