Journalists' Syndicate: Israel Treats Journalists as a Strategic Threat and Commits Systematic War Crimes by Arresting 147 of Them

SadaNews - The Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the described war crimes committed daily against Palestinian journalists, considering that "Israel treats the Palestinian press as a strategic threat that must be eradicated, in a failed attempt to obscure the truth and silence witnesses".

A press report issued by the Syndicate's Freedoms Committee indicated that from October 2023 until the end of July 2025, the Syndicate documented the arrest of 147 journalists, including around 20 female journalists who were subjected to assaults and psychological and physical torture, and the martyrdom of 240 journalists in the Gaza Strip since the onset of aggression, some of whom were killed along with their families in deliberate targeting of their homes, and the detention of dozens of journalists under administrative detention without charges or trial.

In addition to systematic practices including: beatings, denial of medical treatment, solitary confinement, and confiscation of journalistic tools.

The report added that the file of detained journalists reveals the oppressive nature of the occupation: most journalists are held in administrative detention without charges, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and some journalists have been in enforced disappearance for long months, as they are subjected to harsh detention conditions, including denial of visits, psychological and physical torture, and deliberate medical neglect.

The Syndicate emphasized that what is happening is a war crime and a crime against humanity that necessitates holding Israel accountable before the International Criminal Court, and it constitutes a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and UN Security Council Resolution 2222, and is a systematic policy to conceal evidence of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.

The report reaffirmed the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate's demands for the immediate release of all captive journalists, the cancellation of the administrative detention policy against them, the formation of an independent international investigation committee to investigate the occupation's crimes against Palestinian media, the imposition of international sanctions on the leaders, politicians, and officers of the occupation responsible for these crimes, and the provision of urgent international protection for journalists working in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Mohammad Al-Laham, head of the Syndicate's Freedoms Committee, commented on the report by stating that the continued silence of the international community means complicity with the occupation in its crime against Palestinian journalism.

He added that these policies confirm that the occupation is not targeting individuals as much as it seeks to criminalize the entirety of Palestinian journalistic work by demonizing journalists and labeling them as "inciters," in an attempt to convince the world that the camera is more dangerous than the gun, and that Palestinian journalism is a strategic threat that must be eradicated in all forms, including arrest and assassination.