129 Journalists Killed in 2025, Most in Gaza and Yemen

Journalists, relatives and friends pray over the bodies of journalists Sari Mansour and Hassouna Esleem after they were killed in an Israeli bombardment at Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on 19 November 2023.

In 2025, a record 129 journalists and media workers were killed while on duty, with two-thirds of the deaths linked to Israeli attacks, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported. This marks the second consecutive year of record press killings.

Israeli fire claimed 86 lives, mostly Palestinians in Gaza, and included 31 killed in an attack on a Houthi media centre in Yemen—the second deadliest assault on journalists in CPJ’s history. Israel was responsible for 81 percent of the 47 cases classified as intentional killings, though access limitations in Gaza suggest the true number may be higher.

Israel’s military previously stated its operations target combatants, but acknowledges some journalists have been hit, including in Gaza and Yemen, where it described the media centre as a Houthi propaganda site. International news organisations have denied links between slain reporters and militants, which CPJ called "deadly smears."

Outside Gaza and Yemen, Sudan, Mexico, Ukraine, and the Philippines also saw journalist deaths. Among the victims was Reuters reporter Hussam al-Masri, killed in Gaza’s Nasser Hospital during a live broadcast. An Israeli military investigation called it a “tragic mishap.”

CPJ noted that no other government’s military has targeted journalists as systematically, based on data collected over more than three decades.