On the afternoon of Wednesday, December 20, journalist Hani Mahmoud was live on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, on the outskirts of the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. All of a sudden, a first explosion startled him, which was followed by a series of bombardments detonating just behind the hospital. At least 10 people were killed. One of the station's journalists and broadcast technicians, Moaz Mohsen, was wounded. In recent weeks, reporters covering the area left the makeshift newsroom they had set up in Khan Yunis to set up their satellite buses and makeshift tents near this Rafah hospital. They hoped to be safer there after the Israeli army ordered evacuations to the south.

Since October 7, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), 66 Palestinian journalists and media professionals – technicians and drivers – have been killed in Gaza, out of a total of more than 20,000 Gazan victims reported by the local ministry of Health. Four others were killed on the Israeli side on October 7, and three in Lebanon. "This is unprecedented," said Anthony Bellanger, IFJ General Secretary. At least 13 of them were killed while carrying out their work, reports the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Israeli army has informed Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Reuters that it does not guarantee the safety of its reporters in the enclave.

"Yes, there are indiscriminate bombings. But I have a large number of examples where [the Israelis] deliberately target fellow journalists. Fortunately, many have not been killed, but they have been wounded by bullets," said Bellanger, citing the example of a Gazan journalist who was "amputated almost to the bone" after being shot at by a drone. Several investigations by AFP, Reuters, and the NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have shown that the Israeli army deliberately targeted journalists in southern Lebanon on October 13, killing Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah and wounding six other journalists, including AFP photographer Christina Assi. The 28-year-old had her right leg amputated.

Immediately after Samer Abu Daqqa's death on December 15, the Israeli army assured us that it "never deliberately targeted journalists" and was taking "all possible operational measures to protect civilians and journalists." "The scale, seriousness, and recurrence of international crimes targeting journalists, particularly in Gaza, call for a priority investigation by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court," said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire, who filed a complaint on October 31, on behalf of eight Gazan journalists and an Israeli journalist. Now Palestinian reporters are wondering whether it's relevant to "display the little 'press' sign on helmets and flak jackets" that uniquely identifies them, said Bellanger.

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