Journalists Syndicate: Implications of 105 Gun Intimidation Incidents in 2025 Compared to 101 Gas and Sound Bomb Incidents

SadaNews - A special report by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate revealed that 105 incidents of gunfire targeting journalists during field coverage for intimidation purposes were recorded, alongside 76 actual injuries from gunfire and shrapnel, indicating that gunfire has become not just a tool of threat but has transformed in a significant number of cases into direct physical harm. This undermines any claim that the gunfire was "warning shots" or "fired into the air," and confirms that journalists have been placed within the field targeting circle.

The report issued by the Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee stated that the interconnectedness and integration of these incidents are evident in the 76 injuries, which are not a separate data point but rather a natural outcome of the 105 intimidation incidents. We are facing a single connected chain: intimidation with weapons, direct exposure to danger, and actual injuries.

This reflects a failure or absence of any intention to control or reduce harm.

The report added that gunfire surpasses all other means of repression by summarizing: 105 incidents of intimidation through gunfire and 76 injuries from gunfire and rocket shrapnel, leading us to 181 incidents related to the use of lethal force against journalists, a figure that far exceeds the use of gas and sound bombs (101 incidents), confirming that firearms have become the primary tool in suppressing journalistic work.

The report indicated that injuries from shrapnel specifically carry a more serious implication, as they indicate: working in heavily bombed areas without any safe passages for journalists, a disregard for the principles of distinction and proportionality, and an implicit acceptance of injuring journalists as "collateral damage," a description that is legally and ethically unacceptable.

These incidents confirm the occurrence of a compounded violation of international law: a violation of Article (79) of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, a pattern of collective media punishment, evidencing a systematic intimidation policy aimed at silencing witnesses.

The report concluded that adding 76 injuries from gunfire and rocket shrapnel to the 105 incidents of intimidation by gunfire reveals that the occupation has shifted from a policy of intimidation to a policy of deliberate harm, and the Palestinian journalist has transformed from a legally protected witness to an exposed field target, in an unprecedented escalation surpassing even "less lethal" repression tools like gas and sound bombs.