• Israel accounted for two-thirds of the 129 journalists killed globally in 2025.
• The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented Israel's use of deadly tactics including drone strikes.
• High numbers of casualties included Palestinian journalists reporting from Gaza.
• This marks the second consecutive year of record fatalities, attributed to Israel's military actions.
• Claims of journalists being militants have been rejected by rights organizations as "deadly smears".

A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) highlights that Israel was responsible for approximately two-thirds of the 129 journalists and media workers killed globally in 2025, marking it the deadliest year for the press since the organization began tracking such fatalities in 1992. This increase in journalist deaths has been attributed to Israel's military actions, particularly in Gaza, where the majority of the victims were Palestinian journalists. The report underscores a harmful trend of violence against media personnel, with Israel accounting for 86 of the journalist deaths recorded last year, according to Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, and Reuters.

The CPJ report indicates that there is a "persistent culture of impunity for attacks on the press" within Israeli military operations. Many incidents involved deliberate targeting, with Israel responsible for 81% of the 47 killings characterized by CPJ as intentional. Furthermore, it stated that the true number of targeted journalist fatalities could be significantly higher owing to access restrictions in Gaza which complicate investigations. "The report highlights that, due to destroyed evidence and difficult conditions, we may never fully understand the extent of the targeting of Palestinian journalists," asserts the CPJ's findings, according to Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, and Reuters.

In detail, 86 journalists killed by Israeli forces in 2025 included not only those in Gaza but also victims from an attack on a Houthi media center in Yemen, where 31 workers died. The actions of Israeli forces during the ongoing conflict have raised significant alarm among press freedom advocates. CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg emphasized that "attacks on the media are a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms," reiterating a need for international efforts to prevent these violent acts, as noted by Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, and Reuters.

Moreover, the report notes that claims from the Israeli military that journalists were associated with militant groups have been widely criticized as unfounded. Rights organizations argue that these claims constitute "deadly smears" against the victims, further complicating the narrative around the fatalities. The international community's lack of access to Gaza hampers independent investigations, making accountability difficult amid these ongoing human rights concerns, according to Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera, and Reuters.