Israel Kills Shireen Abu Akleh, Then Targets Palestinian Journalists in Gaza

Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh was killed on May 11, 2022, after Israeli fire hampered rescue efforts and she was shown “lying on the ground” with journalist Shatha Hanaysha beside her.

“I can’t remember a time in my childhood when I didn’t hear Shireen Abu Akleh’s voice”

Al Jazeera

The Al Jazeera account says the assassination in broad daylight was “a harbinger of what was to come,” and that a year and a half later Israel began a campaign of systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

Al Jazeera

The same Al Jazeera piece says that “as of today, at least 260 media workers have been killed,” and it frames the deaths of journalists as motivating young people to keep reporting.

It also describes the author as a resident of Gaza City who survived numerous Israeli attacks and was forced to flee with family multiple times, while later writing from northern Gaza through several sieges and a famine.

The author adds that after a temporary truce in January 2025 was announced, “some connectivity was restored,” enabling publication of a first piece titled “Surviving war in north Gaza.”

Mondoweiss frames the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh as the moment when “the Israeli occupation’s war against journalists became visible to the whole world,” and it says the killers were “never held accountable.”

The Mondoweiss author says “more than 275 journalists have been killed in Gaza and Lebanon since Shireen’s assassination,” and it lists named journalists including Anas Al-Sharif, Hasan Eslayeh, and Ismail al-Ghoul in Gaza, and Ali Shuaib, Fatima Ftouni, and her brother Muhammad in southern Lebanon.

Al-Jazeera Net

It also describes administrative detention, saying “more than 44 held under administrative detention” were living in isolation, hunger, illness, and thirst with “no clear date of release.”

In parallel, Courrier international reports a CPJ annual report published on Wednesday, February 25, saying Israeli forces were responsible for “86 journalists and media professionals killed in 2025 out of a total of 129.”

Courrier international further quotes CPJ figures that “38 of the 47 deadly incidents worldwide” attributed to Israel were described as “murders,” while Le Monde adds that CPJ attributes responsibility to the State of Israel in “two-thirds of the cases.”

Le Monde reports that a CPJ report published on Wednesday, February 25, counted “129 journalists and newsroom staff” killed in 2025 and said the State of Israel was responsible in “two-thirds of the cases.”

“For the Israeli progressive media outlet Haaretz, a vocal opponent of the Netanyahu government, this is a statistic 'that shames the country'”

Courrier international

The same Le Monde article quotes CPJ’s warning that “Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” and it attributes the rise in drone use to “39 documented cases” compared with “only two in 2023.”

Le Monde also says CPJ noted “very few transparent investigations were conducted into the documented cases of targeted killings (...) in 2025,” and that “no one has been held responsible in any of these cases.”

Al-Jazeera Net ties the stakes to the Shireen Abu Akleh case, saying the absence of accountability has “paved the way for the Israeli occupation army to widen its systematic targeting of journalists in Palestine and Lebanon.”

It adds that James Zogby said Israel’s handling of the case was a recurring model of denial, obfuscation, and confusion, and it quotes him calling it “an entrenched Israeli practice in dealing with violations.”