Gaza: The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate revealed today that the targeting of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation has gone far beyond direct killings, injuries, detentions, or restrictions on reporting, with at least 706 members of journalists' families killed during the genocide.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, the report released on Saturday highlighted that the Israeli occupation's attacks on journalists have escalated to a more dangerous and brutal level. These attacks have targeted journalists' families and relatives in an apparent attempt to turn journalism into an existential burden, paid for by children, spouses, and parents.
The Syndicate's Freedoms Committee documented that the systematic targeting of journalists' families by Israeli forces was extensively recorded in 2023, 2024, and 2025, claiming the lives of approximately 706 family members in Gaza. The indicators suggest that these attacks are not accidental consequences of war conditions.
The committee reported that in 2023, 436 family members of Palestinian journalists were killed, followed by 203 in 2024, and 67 in 2025, despite forced displacement and living in tents and shelters. One of the latest incidents occurred just days ago, nearly two years after Israeli airstrikes on a journalist's home west of Khan Younis, resulting in the recovery of the body of journalist Heba Al-Abadla, her mother, and about 15 members of the Al-Astal family.
The report emphasized that hundreds of children, women, and elderly people have been killed because of a family member's profession in journalism, in violation of international humanitarian norms and laws. Documented cases show multiple forms of targeting, including direct strikes on journalists' homes, killing many family members, and in some cases, entire families. There were also attacks on displacement areas and tents where families fled after home destruction, and repeated shelling of areas known to house journalists and their families without effective warnings.
The Freedoms Committee stressed that this represents a shift in the occupation's behavior, moving from individual to collective targeting. The family has become a tool of pressure and collective punishment, violating the principles of international humanitarian law. The report noted that this approach turns journalism into a threat not only to the journalist but to their social and family environment, eroding community support for media work and undermining the protective environment for journalists.
