Palestinian Journalists Syndicate: Zionist Occupation Targets Press to Silence Truth

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has held the Zionist occupation forces fully responsible for the blatant war crimes committed daily against Palestinian journalists. It stressed that the occupation treats the Palestinian press as a strategic threat to be eliminated, in a failed attempt to obscure the truth and silence witnesses.

In a report issued on Monday by the Syndicate’s Freedoms Committee, it was revealed that from October 7, 2023, until the end of July, the occupation arrested 147 journalists, including around 20 female journalists who were subjected to physical and psychological assault and torture. The report also documented the killing of 240 journalists in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression, many of whom were deliberately targeted in their homes along with their families.

The Syndicate noted that dozens of journalists are being held under administrative detention without indictment or trial, facing systematic abuse such as beatings, denial of medical care, solitary confinement, and confiscation of equipment. It stressed that these practices expose the true oppressive nature of the Zionist occupation, which openly violates international humanitarian law. Some journalists have even been forcibly disappeared for months, subjected to harsh conditions including torture, psychological abuse, and deliberate medical neglect.

The report emphasized that these crimes constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, warranting prosecution of the Zionist entity before the International Criminal Court. They also represent a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Security Council Resolution 2222, while serving as part of a systematic policy to conceal evidence of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Syndicate demanded the immediate release of all detained journalists, an end to administrative detention, the establishment of an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of the occupation against Palestinian media, the imposition of international sanctions on Zionist leaders and officials responsible, and the provision of urgent international protection for journalists in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The head of the Freedoms Committee, Muhammad al-Lahham, denounced the continued silence of the international community, saying it amounts to complicity in the crime against the Palestinian press. He stressed that the occupation seeks not only to target individuals, but to criminalize Palestinian journalism itself, demonizing reporters and labeling their work as “incitement.” He concluded: “For the occupation, the camera is more dangerous than the rifle, and Palestinian journalism is seen as a strategic threat that must be eliminated through arrests and assassinations.”