The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate documented the death of 102 journalists and the serious injury of 71 during the year 2023.

The head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Nasser Abu Bakr, said during a press conference held at the Syndicate’s headquarters in the city of Al-Bireh, today, Thursday, to announce its annual report on the most prominent violations committed against journalists in the past year, that the Journalists Syndicate, the International Federation of Journalists, and the Union of Arab Journalists consider that what is happening in the sector Gaza is the largest massacre in the history of the media, and by the media in the world in the shortest period of time, as more than 100 journalists were martyred, equivalent to 8.5% of the number of journalists in the Gaza Strip.

He pointed out that the Syndicate, along with its lawyers, the International Federation, and the British Federation of Journalists, are continuing to prepare the legal file to file a complaint with the International Criminal Court, and this is the third complaint.

He noted that the British Journalists Syndicate, in coordination with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, called on the British government a week ago to stop supporting the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.

He stated that the union, from the first day of the aggression, decided to issue a report in Arabic, English, and French to send to international and Arab federations, unions, and the media, and formed a crisis cell to communicate with the world, because there is a military war against our people in Gaza, and against the Palestinian narrative and reality, in a systematic targeting of journalists.

He said that the Union of Arab Journalists decided to place all its capabilities with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and to support its movements in the international judiciary at all levels, pointing out that the Union formed a crisis cell to follow up with the Syndicate on crimes against journalists, as it decided in its meeting at the end of last November to go to court. For the third time, the International Federation issued a criminal appeal against the crimes of the occupation, especially in the Gaza Strip. The International Federation issued a call to journalists for professional coverage, away from bias, and to assist Palestinian journalists.

In turn, the head of the union’s freedoms committee, Muhammad al-Laham, said that journalists are not numbers, they are real icons, pointing to the difficulty the committee faced in monitoring violations against journalists.

The statistics contained in the report showed that 102 journalists were martyred as a result of the Israeli bombing of colleagues’ homes and offices or while they were working in the field in media coverage, indicating that among the dead were 13 female journalist colleagues, most of whom worked as correspondents for media agencies and websites, including 78 workers in the media profession. And 24 who work in media institutions in non-media affairs, in addition to the death of a very large number of journalists’ families as a result of the targeting of their children.

The report spoke of a very large number of injuries to journalists in the Gaza Strip, which medical teams described as very serious, as a result of 23 male and female colleagues being hit by rocket fragments, causing fatal wounds or obvious disabilities, while 48 bullets, including live and metal bullets, entered the bodies of journalists in the West Bank.

The report indicated that there are a large number of injured journalists who need treatment that is not available in the Gaza Strip, especially after hospitals and medical teams were targeted by occupation missiles, noting that 27 journalists were subjected to gunfire at them and in the vicinity of their work without being injured.

It pointed out that the occupation has arrested about 58 male and female journalists since October 7 in the West Bank and Gaza. Their arrest included storming homes, destroying furniture, and seizing journalists’ equipment and cellular communication devices, in addition to assaulting and beating them and their family members.

The report indicated that the majority of detained journalists are still in detention without trial, or even without knowing their fate, especially colleagues in the Gaza Strip who are considered missing.

The report explained that 16 male and female journalists were summoned by the occupation intelligence, and 57 journalists were subjected to unfair military courts, and some of them were subjected to heavy financial fines.

The report monitored 49 incidents of colonial crimes and attacks against journalists, most of which occurred in the presence of the occupation forces, which provided them with protection and cover to carry out all these attacks. The colonists also had a large share of the high level of threats and intimidation, which recorded 23 incidents.

The report documented 38 incidents that targeted journalistic work equipment by destroying it, either with bullets or by beating and kicking, while the occupation army did not hesitate to seize journalists’ equipment even without giving any notice of that.

The report said that 80 press and media institutions were targeted by bombing and total and partial destruction, as well as by storming and closing, and about 9 Palestinian printing presses in the West Bank were stormed and their contents seized, while 91 journalists’ homes were stormed by the occupation army, and media institutions became headquarters and offices for satellite channels and agencies. News, newspapers and radio stations were a playground for Israeli missiles that directly targeted them, leading to their destruction.

The report monitored 314 cases of journalistic crews being detained and prevented from working and reporting under threat.

The report stated that the occupation soldiers find it easy to target journalists by firing tear gas bombs with the aim of harming them. The occupation is not satisfied with that, but aims to inflict greater harm by targeting journalists with these bombs, as 35 of them were injured, while 90 of their colleagues suffocated.

The report said, "There is a crime that we are still experiencing with the disappearance of our colleagues Nidal Al-Wahidi and Haitham Abdel-Wahed from the Gaza Strip, as the occupation is keeping their fate secret."

The Freedoms Committee also recorded in its report many violations, including the travel ban, the attempt to run over journalists, the deletion of video materials, and other forms of crimes, attacks, and violations of the Israeli occupation.