Bloody Injuries Against Journalists in Palestine in 2025 Reveal a Policy of Annihilation, Not Neutralization

SadaNews - Data from monitoring and documentation gathered by the Freedoms Committee of the Palestinian Journalists' Union from October 7, 2023, until the end of 2025 reveals a systematic and escalating pattern of bloody targeting of journalists, peaking in 2025, where injuries reached 76 by the end of November. This transformation from sporadic violations to a fixed policy aimed at silencing the press through killing, injury, and permanent disability is evident. The data confirms that in 2025, the Israeli occupation shifted from restricting journalistic work to a policy of forcibly neutralizing the press, aiming to silence witnesses, prevent the documentation of crimes, and break the Palestinian narrative in the field. The year 2025 represents the peak of bloody targeting of journalists in Palestine and can be described as: the year of repeated collective targeting (tents - hospitals - journalistic gatherings). It is the year of lethal and disabling strikes (head, neck, chest, abdomen, amputations, blindness). A year of overlapping sources of danger. The occupation army, settlers, drones, artillery shelling, and even assaults from internal armed groups (documented cases). By 2025, the journalist was no longer just a "potential target" but a confirmed and repeated target. Among the most notable features of each phase: January - March 2025 | Continuity with precise escalation, ongoing shelling of journalists' homes (Gaza), injuries by live ammunition in the West Bank (Jenin - Hebron - Ramallah). A clear beginning of targeting: Media centers, journalists within residential neighborhoods, and this targeting is no longer only related to coverage moments but to the identity of the journalist themselves. April - May 2025 | The phase of tents and media massacres. A pivotal point: April 7-8 / Journalist Tent - Nasser Hospital, 9 journalists injured at once, destruction of equipment, subsequent martyrdom of journalists affected by their injuries. This event: documented, repeated, at a known site, with heavy weaponry, constitutes a complex war crime + collective targeting of the press. June 2025: mass killings during coverage: Shelling journalists in: schools, hospitals, public squares; the goal is no longer to "neutralize coverage," but to eliminate the crews themselves. July - August 2025: permanent disabilities, loss of eyesight (Akram Daloul), foot amputation (Jamal Badah), permanent paralysis (Mohammad Fayek), repeated head and neck injuries. A pattern of injuries that causes permanent disability and is not incidental. September - October - November 2025: expanding the circle of violence, continued shelling in Gaza, escalation of settler assaults in the West Bank (Beita - Hebron), beating, running over, burning vehicles, breaking equipment, injuries during olive-picking coverage (a purely civil event). An effective alliance between military violence and settler violence. In terms of Palestinian geography, the Gaza Strip emerges as the most dangerous area globally: Gaza City, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, al-Nuseirat, Jabalia, Rafah. Target sites: journalists' tents, hospitals, displacement schools, private homes. The West Bank: Jerusalem, Jenin, Nablus / Beita, Tulkarm, Hebron, Ramallah. The pattern: direct hits, live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs, assaults by settlers under army protection. Injuring tools and patterns (2025): reconnaissance and explosive drones, heavy aerial bombardment, artillery shells, live and metal bullets. Beatings with sticks and rifle butts, running over with military vehicles. Injury sites: head (bleeding - blindness - fractures), neck and chest, abdomen and pelvis, spine (paralysis), limbs (amputation - disability), which describes deadly and intentional injuries. The professional context: the vast majority of injuries occurred during field coverage, in known places with the presence of journalists, while wearing press shields and badges, with repeated targeting of the same journalists on several occasions. The committee concluded its report by emphasizing that the targeting of journalists in Palestine is a direct targeting of truth, freedom of opinion and expression, and that the ongoing impunity encourages more crimes against media personnel. Mohammad al-Laham, Head of the Freedoms Committee of the union, noted that what occurred in 2025 constitutes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, a systematic targeting of a protected group which is journalists through an official policy to silence the media by force, and what we see are not incidents, but a battlefield doctrine aimed at having no witnesses.. no narrative.. no image. Al-Laham added that the targeting of journalists in Palestine is no longer incidental or circumstantial but has become a structural part of the military and security behavior of the occupation.