The year 2025 was the deadliest on record for journalists worldwide. Of the 129 press workers killed globally, Israel was responsible for two-thirds of them — a scale of media killing that has no parallel in modern recorded history.

The Committee to Protect Journalists released its annual Special Report on February 25, documenting 129 journalist and media worker deaths in 2025 — the highest annual figure since CPJ began tracking press fatalities more than three decades ago. At least 86 of those deaths were caused by Israeli fire, the majority of them Palestinians reporting from inside Gaza, where the genocide has now entered its third year.

The numbers are staggering on their own. But the pattern behind them is what demands accountability. CPJ documented 47 killings it classified as deliberate murder — and Israel was responsible for 81% of them. Drone killings of journalists surged from two cases in 2023 to 39 in 2025, with 28 of those attributed to Israeli forces in Gaza alone.

Not one person has been held accountable for a single targeted killing of a journalist by Israel since October 2023.

Israel has not merely failed to protect journalists — it has systematically targeted them. The pattern is consistent, the evidence is documented, and the impunity is absolute. The United States, which funds and arms Israel to the tune of billions each year, has not conditioned a single dollar on press protection.

Several contributors to Palestinian media outlets were killed during 2025, some alongside members of their own families. They were not caught in crossfire. They were doing their jobs.

The world cannot say it does not know what is happening in Gaza. Israel has simply made sure there are fewer people left to tell it.