The Government Media Office in Gaza announced that the number of journalist martyrs in the genocide war has risen to 221, following the death of journalist Moataz Muhammad Rajab, a cameraman and video editor for the satellite channel "Al-Quds Today."

In a statement issued Wednesday, the office condemned the Israeli occupation’s deliberate and systematic targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists.

The office urged the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union, and media organizations across the globe to denounce the deliberate targeting and killings of Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza.

It blamed the Israeli occupation, the US government, and nations complicit in the genocide, namely Britain, Germany, and France, for bearing full responsibility for these atrocities.

The office urged the international community, relevant global institutions, and media rights organizations to denounce "Israel's" crimes, pressure for accountability in international courts, and ensure justice for its violations.

They further called on these groups to take meaningful action, pressuring for an end to the genocide, ensuring the safety of Gaza's journalists, and stopping their systematic killings.

Murdered journalist Fatima Hassouna honored at Cannes

On May 14, during the opening ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, festival jury president Juliette Binoche honored Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on April 16, along with ten family members.

The 25-year-old Hassouna is featured in the newly released documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, directed by Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi.

"The day before her death, she learned that the film had been selected. Fatima should have been with us tonight," Binoche stated.

Hassouna and ten relatives were killed in an Israeli air raid on her family home in northern Gaza last month, only one day after the documentary was revealed as part of the ACID Cannes selection.

More journalists and media workers killed in Gaza than major world conflicts

More journalists and media workers have been murdered in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 2023, when "Israel" began its continuing genocidal assault on the Palestinian enclave, than in both World Wars and other major conflicts combined, a report revealed in early April.

On his part, American investigative journalist Nick Turse, in his comprehensive report, "News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World," published by Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, revealed that 232 journalists have been killed in Gaza as of March 26.

13 fatalities a month

The startling figure, which averages about 13 fatalities per month, exceeds the total number of journalist deaths in the US Civil War, both World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam Wars (including conflicts in Cambodia and Laos), the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and 2000s, and the war on Afghanistan combined, he said.

The report emphasized that local journalists bear the brunt of these risks, as the decline in Western foreign correspondents has forced the global media to rely more on local reporters, who frequently operate with limited resources and protection.

According to the research, “Most reporters harmed or killed, as is the case in Gaza, are local journalists. The world increasingly relies on these often underpaid, under-resourced, and under-equipped journalists to carry out the most dangerous types of coverage as the number of Western foreign correspondents dwindles."

Turse emphasized in his report that the Israeli regime's restriction on foreign reporters in Gaza, along with the murder of Palestinian journalists, means there are considerably fewer journalists capable of relaying news from the war-torn area to the American audience.

He added that this was particularly harmful since the US “approved around $18 billion in financial support for Israeli military aggression in Gaza and elsewhere in the year following October 2023."