A record 129 journalists and media workers were killed in the course of their work last year, two-thirds of them killed by Israel, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) claimed on Wednesday.

The IDF said it “strongly rejects” the CPJ report. “The IDF does not intentionally harm journalists or their family members,” it said in a statement. “The report is based on general allegations, data of unknown origin, and predetermined conclusions, without considering the complexity of combat or the IDF’s efforts to mitigate harm to noncombatants.”

It was the second straight year that press killings set a record and the second straight year that Israel was responsible for two-thirds of them, the CPJ, a New York-based independent organization that documents attacks on the press, said in its annual report.

Journalists, even those linked to terror groups, enjoy protection under international humanitarian law unless or until they take up arms and participate directly in hostilities, in which case they become a legitimate target.

Israeli fire killed 86 journalists in 2025, mostly Palestinians in the Gaza Strip but also 31 workers in an attack on a media center in Yemen belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi terror organization, the second-deadliest single attack on journalists the CPJ has ever recorded, it said.

Israel was also responsible for 81 percent of the 47 killings that the CPJ classified as intentionally targeted, or “murder.” It said the actual figure was probably higher due to access restrictions that made verification difficult in Gaza.

Israel has rejected allegations that it deliberately targets journalists and asserts that many ostensible members of the press — some of them on CPJ’s list — who were killed throughout the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel were in fact combatants.

The Israeli military also says its troops in Gaza target only combatants, but that operating in combat zones carries inherent risks.

Israel acknowledged targeting the media center in Yemen in September, describing it as a propaganda arm of the Houthis.

The propaganda division, officially known as the Moral Guidance Department in the Yemeni Armed Forces, is under complete Houthi control and is headed by Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree. Yemen’s September 26 newspaper, which describes itself as the official Houthi military outlet, named 31 journalists killed in the strike.

In several cases, Israel has acknowledged targeting ostensible journalists in Gaza who it said had links to Hamas and other terror groups. The IDF has, in some cases, provided documentation seized from terror groups in Gaza that lists the journalists as fighters for those groups.

More than 40 names on CPJ’s list of journalists killed by Israel since the start of the war have also been identified as members of terror groups by the IDF, independently by open-source intelligence analysts, and in some cases by the terror groups themselves.

A study published in December by an Israeli research center claimed that 60% of 266 press workers killed since Hamas launched the war with an invasion and massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, either strongly identified with or were members of Gaza-based terror groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with many working as propagandists.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed the death of Mahdi al-Mamluk, the deputy head of the terror group’s communications unit. Mamluk was listed by CPJ as a “broadcast engineer for the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Al-Quds Al-Youm TV.”

International news organizations have strongly denied that slain reporters had links to terror groups. The CPJ called such allegations by Israel “deadly smears.”

⁶³ Journalist #72???? 11-Nov-2024 | ???? Gaza CityMahdi Hassan Al-Mamlukمهدي حسن المملوك ???? Al-Quds Al-Yawm TV (Al-Quds Today)????️ Role: Broadcast Engineer⚠️ Type: Combatant (PIJ)???? CPJ: Listed; IFJ: Listed???? MoH ID: 801389321 Mourned as Commander and "Deputy of the Central… pic.twitter.com/ZVmD8UUhP2 — Middle East Buka (@MiddleEastBuka) February 24, 2026

⁶³ Journalist #72???? 11-Nov-2024 | ???? Gaza CityMahdi Hassan Al-Mamlukمهدي حسن المملوك

???? Al-Quds Al-Yawm TV (Al-Quds Today)????️ Role: Broadcast Engineer⚠️ Type: Combatant (PIJ)???? CPJ: Listed; IFJ: Listed???? MoH ID: 801389321

Mourned as Commander and "Deputy of the Central… pic.twitter.com/ZVmD8UUhP2

— Middle East Buka (@MiddleEastBuka) February 24, 2026

Israel does not permit foreign journalists to enter Gaza, so all the media workers killed there were Palestinians.

The CPJ report said the “Israeli military has now committed more targeted killings of the press than any other government’s military on record,” noting that the CPJ started collecting data more than three decades ago.

Its report said at least 104 of the 129 journalists killed worldwide died in connection with conflicts. Apart from Gaza and Yemen, the deadliest countries for journalists include Sudan, where nine were killed, and Mexico, where six died. Four Ukrainian journalists were killed by Russian forces, and three journalists died in the Philippines, it said.

Russia’s embassy in Washington did not respond specifically to the CPJ report, but referred to past Russian Foreign Ministry statements accusing Kyiv of responsibility for the deaths of more than 60 individuals working in Russian media since 2014.

Russia has previously denied deliberately targeting journalists, and Ukraine denies targeting Russian reporters.

Those killed in Gaza last year included Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri, killed by Israeli fire in August while operating a live video feed at the enclave’s Nasser Hospital.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he regretted the attack, which killed some 20 other Palestinians, including four other journalists, as a “tragic mishap.”

The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas camera, but a Reuters investigation found the device belonged to the news agency. The IDF said that six of the victims were Hamas operatives, including one who took part in the onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza when terrorists invaded southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.

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