UN human rights experts sounded the alarm on Thursday over soaring numbers of journalists killed in the war on Gaza, denouncing the "deliberate" Israeli strategy of silencing critical reporting.

"We are alarmed at the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured, and detained in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in Gaza, in recent months blatantly disregarding international law," five UN experts said on Thursday as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights described the genocide committed by "Israel" in the Gaza Strip as the "deadliest, most dangerous conflict for journalists in recent history."

In the statement released by the experts, it was reaffirmed that "journalists are entitled to protection as civilians under international humanitarian law," adding that "targeted attacks and killings of journalists are war crimes."

“We condemn all killings, threats, and attacks on journalists and call on all parties to the conflict to protect them,” the experts underscored, before explaining that over 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip, while three others were killed in Lebanon with Israeli fire.

Moreover, the experts voiced their concern over the dozens of Palestinian journalists who have been injured and detained by Israeli occupation forces across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank where harassment, intimidation, and attacks on journalists have increased since October 7.

Journalists in #SouthAfrica held different vigils in solidarity with the #Palestinian journalists who are being targeted by "Israel's" aggression on the #Gaza Strip.#Palestine #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/p6mxAoaZal

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) January 29, 2024

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"We pay special tribute to the courage and resilience of journalists and media workers in Gaza who continue to put their own lives on the line every day in the course of duty, while also enduring enormous hardship and tragic loss of colleagues, friends, and families in one of the bloodiest, most ruthless conflicts of our times," the statement read.

UN experts have decried the significant toll exacted on journalists in Gaza, with Al-Jazeera journalist Wael al-Dahdouh's tragic story serving as a poignant example.

Al-Dahdouh lost his wife, two children, and a grandson in an Israeli bombing on October 25, 2023, survived a drone attack in late December that claimed his cameraman's life, and suffered another devastating blow on January 7, 2024, when his son, also an Al-Jazeera journalist, and another colleague were killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting their car.

International law must prevail

The UN experts expressed deep concern over disturbing reports indicating that journalists, despite being visibly marked as "press" and operating in well-identifiable press vehicles, came under deliberate attacks. This alarming trend suggests "that the killings, injury, and detention are a deliberate strategy by Israeli forces to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting."

The statement also stressed that "in times of conflict, the right to information is a ‘survival right’ on which the very lives of civilians depend, and journalists play an indispensable role as a vital source of information, and as human rights defenders and witnesses to atrocities, reporting on violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and human rights."

In that context, the experts said, "We urge Israeli authorities to allow journalists to enter Gaza and protect the safety of all journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" and to facilitate immediate, independent, and impartial investigations into every journalist killing, adhering to international standards such as the United Nations Minnesota Protocol on the investigation of potentially unlawful death.

In conclusion, the experts pled to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, urging them to prioritize the alarming pattern of attacks and the prevailing impunity for crimes against journalists. They underscored the intensification of these attacks since October 7, emphasizing the imperative need for a halt to the targeting and killing of journalists in occupied Palestine.

Read more: 'Israel' kills another journalist, bringing total to 121