A damning new report from the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has revealed that Israeli forces are responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed worldwide in 2025, solidifying its status as the deadliest country for the press for three consecutive years. The report, published on Tuesday, documents the killing of 67 journalists globally, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain by Israeli forces in Gaza accounting for 43% of the total. RSF directly blamed the "criminal practices" of militaries for the rising death toll and labeled Israeli forces "the worst enemy of journalists".
The findings underscore a systematic campaign against the press in Gaza, which RSF identifies as the single most dangerous region in the world for journalists. Since the start of Israel's military campaign in October 2023, nearly 220 journalists have been killed, the vast majority of them Palestinians. This equates to an average of 12 journalists killed every month over 26 months of conflict. The report stresses that these journalists were not accidental casualties but were "targeted for their work," serving as key witnesses to a war that Israel continues to restrict international media from independently covering.
The report highlights a particularly lethal tactic employed by Israeli forces: the so-called "double-tap" strike. The deadliest single attack of the year occurred on August 25, when an Israeli strike hit a hospital in southern Gaza, killing five journalists. Among the victims were contributors to major international news agencies Reuters and The Associated Press, as well as Al Jazeera photographer Mohammad Salama. Such attacks on clearly marked press personnel and civilian infrastructure have drawn severe criticism from media watchdogs and further illustrate the perilous environment for those reporting from Gaza.
While Gaza remains the epicenter of violence against journalists, the RSF report also notes dangerous conditions elsewhere. Mexico was the second-deadliest country in 2025, with nine journalists killed, followed by war-torn Ukraine and Sudan. Globally, a record 503 journalists were detained for their work as of December 1, 2025, with China, Russia, and Myanmar being the world's leading jailers of press personnel. However, the scale and consistency of journalist killings attributed to a single state military; Israel. This pattern, coupled with Israel's ban on independent foreign press access to Gaza, has created a crisis of accountability and information blackout, allowing the war's heaviest tolls to occur away from the world's eyes.