Occupation Violations Against Journalists in Palestine

Shireen Abu Akleh was not the first to pay with her life as the price of truth, of conveying the Palestinian narrative, and of chronicling the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people. She was preceded by dozens of journalists and media professionals killed by the occupation in various ways — whether by bullets, bombings, or missiles — deliberately targeted in an attempt to obscure the truth and prevent the full picture of the crimes and atrocities committed daily by the occupation army and its settlers against Palestinians from reaching the world.

Killing is not the only means the occupation employs to intimidate the ambassadors of truth in Palestine. Arrest, suppression, and physical targeting are other methods continually used by the occupation forces to silence the Palestinian voice and deter journalists from covering what happens daily on the land of Palestine, whether they are Palestinian or foreign journalists.

In this section we track the most significant statistics on these violations against Palestinian journalism, along with updated lists of the names of Palestinian journalism's martyrs and detainees:

Violations against Palestinian journalism over the years

The chart shows a sustained escalation of Israeli violations against Palestinian journalism across 17 years of monitoring and documentation. Since 2008, MADA Center has documented 6,207 Israeli violations against media freedoms — including 2,489 violations during the last three years (2023–2025) alone, approximately 40% of all historical violations.

Violations peaked in 2025 with 889 cases, followed by 2024 with 885, and 2023 with 715 — an unprecedented escalation tied to the war on the Gaza Strip and its systematic extension to the West Bank. For comparison, the average for the less violent years (2008–2013) was under 150 violations annually.

Monthly violations for 2025 — West Bank and Gaza

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Violations by category over the years

Violations fall into six main categories, led by physical assaults with 2,065 cases since 2008 (33% of all violations), followed by suppression of coverage with 1,507 cases (24%), then arrest and detention with 1,175 cases (19%). Together these three categories account for about 76% of total violations — reflecting a three-pronged Israeli strategy to terrorize journalists and push them out of the field.

Killings reached 335 journalist martyrs over the monitoring period, with 304 of them concentrated in the last three years (2023–2025) alone — meaning 91% of all journalist martyrs killed by the occupation fell during the war on Gaza. Violations targeting media institutions and the bombing of journalists' homes have also risen sharply since 2023, a clear indicator that Palestinian media infrastructure itself is being targeted, not just individuals.

Violations against the press