Journalists paying 'heavy price' in Gaza, RSF says, with dozen of media workers killed in Israeli attacks

Journalists in Gaza are paying a "heavy price", Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said as it released a report on media workers killed this year.

The non-profit organisation's data runs from 1 January to 1 December and is global in scope.

RSF said 45 journalists have been killed this year in connection with their work, the lowest since 2002.

More than a quarter of these media workers, or at least 13, have been killed reporting in Gaza since war broke out – a figure that climbs to 56 when considering all journalists, regardless of whether they were killed in the line of their work.

RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said: "Among civilians in Gaza, journalists are paying a heavy price.

"We've noted that the number of journalists killed in connection with their work is very high: at least 13 in such a tiny territory.

"We have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to establish the facts and to what point journalists were knowingly targeted."

RSF's report said that the 13 journalists killed in Gaza in connection with their work since the war erupted "all died under Israeli fire".

It gave the example of 21-year-old Ibrahim Lafi, an Ain Media photojournalist killed on 7 October while he was holding his camera.

Israel's indiscriminate war on Gaza has killed almost 18,800 people, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said on Thursday.

Northern Irish MP Claire Hanna, a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, described the death toll in Gaza as "horrifying" on Tuesday, saying it included over 100 aid workers and around 70 journalists.

"The vast majority of media casualties have been Palestinian journalists who went on working in the face of airstrikes and the deteriorating humanitarian situation as a result of the lack of information caused by the denial of access to international media," she added.

"The [UK and Ireland's] National Union of Journalists warns of systemic targeting of journalists in Palestine, a further breach of international law."