Journalists are dying at an alarming rate as Israel bombards Gaza and southern Lebanon

When a rocket fired by Israel's military flattened buildings in Gaza's al-Bureij refugee camp Saturday morning, freelance photojournalist Hassouna Saliem rushed to the scene and posted the aftermath on his social media account.

His short video showed billowing smoke, smashed concrete and the chaotic sounds of a rescue effort.

In another post, he commented on the lines of bodies wrapped in white shrouds.

"A sad morning, like every morning in Gaza," he wrote.

It would be his last post, on his final assignment.

Hassouna and his friend Sari Mansour, also a journalist, were among 31 people killed in followup strikes by Israel's military on the same refugee camp that evening.

"He didn't have a tank, or a plane or weapons to fight back," his mother, Umm Hassouna, told a producer who interviewed her on behalf of CBC News in Hamad.

"My son died because he was trying to deliver the voice of the truth to the world," she said.

In the weeks before his death, Saliem acknowledged the grave risks that came with documenting the war — but he also said he did not believe the deaths of so many journalists in Gaza was random.

Prior to his death, Saliem acknowledged the grave risks that came with documenting the war, saying on Instagram that journalists are 'subject to be targeted.' (hsona_saliem/Instagram)

Journalists being targeted, observers say

"Journalists and medical teams are subject to assassination, most of our colleagues martyred. As journalists in Gaza, we are subject to be targeted," he said in an Instagram video post in mid-October.

Since Oct. 7 — the date of Hamas's attack in southern Israel — at least 50 journalists have been killed, the vast majority in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an NGO based in New York City.

CPJ says four journalists were killed in Israel by Hamas in their attacks that day, and three journalists in Lebanon have also lost their lives — two of them on Monday, reportedly killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Israel's military vigorously denies that it deliberately tries to kill or target journalists in Gaza, Lebanon or the West Bank.

But as the death toll mounts, advocates of press freedom say they find those denials harder to accept.

"It has been the most shocking and awful slaughter of journalists that I am aware of ever," said Tim Dawson, the deputy general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists.

His Brussels-based group claims more than 600,000 members globally, made up of trade unions and journalism associations.

"My real fear is that there is a deliberate attempt to try and keep the world's eyes off Gaza since the seventh of October," he said.

Others who work to ensure the safety of journalists and media organizations echo his concerns.

Umm Hassouna, Saliem's mother, and his aunt Afaf Abu Sukran with a photo of the slain journalist. (CBC)

"They are part of the society which is being targeted, so it isn't surprising they are also dying in large numbers," said Fiona O'Brien, of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

"But it does feel to us like an increasingly concerted effort to stop the war being reported on and to stop journalism from being able to function properly."

Israeli authorities have repeatedly stated their attacks are aimed at destroying Hamas's military capacity and that civilians are never deliberately targeted.

"Israel is at war with Hamas. Israel is not at war with civilians in Gaza," said Daniel Hagari, one of the main spokespeople for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

In a separate email to CBC News, Israel's military wrote: "The IDF has never and will never deliberately target journalists."

The statement, however, also alleged that some of those killed were using the profession as a cover and were actually militants.

"The IDF has confirmed that certain 'journalists' who were reportedly killed were active terror operatives and were directly participating in hostilities," said the statement.

It did not provide any additional details or evidence to back up the claim.

Palestinian journalists from Gaza gather in Hamad at a school being used to house people forced from their homes by the war. (CBC)

'Huge responsibility' to report from Gaza

Virtually no foreign journalists were in Gaza when the territory's borders were sealed after Oct. 7, leaving it to local Palestinian journalists to tell the story of the war's impact to the rest of the world.

The International Federation of Journalists estimates there are 1,000 people doing work that could be considered journalism in Gaza, including reporters attached to international news agencies, freelance writers and videographers.

A journalist working for CBC News in Gaza spoke to Hind Khoudary, a freelance reporter who reports frequently in English for Turkish news agency Anadolu.

"Everyone is targeted," she said.

Journalist Hind Khoudary reports from outside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. (CBC)

"We have been witnessing several targets on different journalism crews, on different medical crews, on ambulances, on press houses and Belal Jadallah — one of the heads of the press house in the Gaza Strip."

Jadallah was killed when his car was hit by what witnesses say was an Israeli missile Sunday in Gaza City.

He was one of the best known journalists in Gaza and had spent decades training journalists and offering safety courses.

In a recent Anadolu report posted on YouTube, Khoudary reported from the Salah al-Din road as hundreds of people fled Gaza City.

She told her audience that many of those fleeing feared Israeli troops were opening fire using live ammunition.

"People are terrified the situation is horrible. I see fear, terror, anger and sadness in all these people's eyes," she said in the report.

She told CBC News that despite the dangers, she continues to put herself in harm's way because the story on the ground in Gaza needs to be told.

"I believe that I have a huge impact, a huge responsibility on my shoulders to report … and spread the voice of the Palestinians to report what's happening on the ground and to tell the people worldwide what's currently going on in the Gaza Strip."

Khoudary's loyalties have been questioned by both sides — she was detained by Hamas in 2019 and accused of spying after covering cost-of-living protests in Gaza.

On another occasion, she drew criticism when she denounced on Facebook a video chat being held by Palestinian peace activists and Israelis, tagging Hamas officials in her post. A number of the peace activists were arrested by Hamas for holding a "normalization activity."

Fearful and exhausted

Fiona O'Brien, with RSF, says working under Hamas's authoritarian control means journalists in Gaza are regularly subjected to censorship or pressured into reporting stories a certain way — but it's Israeli bombardments that are killing people.

"They're not just reporting and doing their job, but they're living it," said O'Brien.

"They also don't have water or food or adequate electricity. Their families are living there. Their families are being targeted."

She cited the case of Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh, who lost four members of his family in an Israeli attack — including his wife, son, daughter and grandson — and continued reporting in the days that followed.

Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh attends the funeral of his wife and children, who the network said were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in central Gaza Strip, in this still image taken from a video obtained by Reuters on Oct. 26. (Al Jazeera/Reuters )

"The fact that the journalists in there can't come out, they are exhausted psychologically, physically. They tell us they can't sleep for fear," O'Brien said.

Besides military threats, journalists have also had to deal with the ferocious information war being fought alongside it.

Earlier in November, a report by Honest Reporting, a pro-Israeli NGO alleged that Hamas tipped off certain journalists in Gaza prior to the Oct. 7 attacks and invited some of them to come along as witnesses.

The report was widely denounced by leading news outlets, including The Associated Press and The New York Times, which said the allegations were entirely untrue.

Concern over rhetoric

But O'Brien, the journalist's advocate with RSF, says the false story nonetheless served to fuel hatred against journalists and media organizations.

"The really worrying thing was the rhetoric. The way that that was then picked up by Israeli politicians," she said. "It went so far that a member of the Likud party, Danny Danon, talked about needing to eliminate journalists."

O'Brien said a permissive environment where it's "OK" for politicians to talk about killing journalists serves to normalize violence against them.

While Gaza has seen the lion's share of journalist fatalities, the deaths in southern Lebanon from Israeli attacks have also triggered outrage against Israeli forces.

On Monday, correspondent Farah Omar, 25, and cameraman Rabih Me'mari were killed shortly after they finished a live report from a position in Tair Harfa, not far from the boundary with Israel.

They were working for Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based news channel, which issued a statement saying the pair had been "murdered."

Colleagues of two journalists with Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen TV channel, who it says were killed by an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, mourn outside the channel's building in Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

Omar had just finished describing the impact of Israeli attacks when their camera position was hit.

An image posted on social media showed their bodies and their camera still on its tripod, on fire.

Their deaths follow the killing of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah who died on Oct. 13, after his broadcast position was hit. Several other journalists from Al Jazeera and AFP were also injured in the same incident.

Preliminary findings in an investigation done by Reporters Without Borders found the journalists had established a clearly marked "live" position that could be observed by Israel's military.

They had also marked their vehicles with "press" signs that would have been visible to the Israeli helicopters flying overhead, and all were wearing protective gear and helmets that identified them as members of the media.

And yet Israel's military still fired twice at the group, RSF's report found.

The RSF report concluded that it was "unlikely that the journalists were mistaken for combatants."

Following Monday's fatal attack in south Lebanon, Israel's army issued a statement to The Associated Press:

"We are aware of a claim regarding journalists in the area who were killed as a result," the military said. "This is an area with active hostilities, where exchanges of fire occur. Presence in the area is dangerous."