VIDEO. War on information: is the Israeli army targeting journalists?

Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has been a territory closed to foreign reporters. It is therefore Palestinian journalists who have become, at the risk of their lives, the eyes and ears of the media around the world.

Reporters Without Borders keeps a count of journalists killed and investigates the circumstances of their deaths. “For some, explains Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East desk, we know that they were on the ground working. For others, for example, they had received explicit threats before they were killed. For some, they were killed by precision weapons such as drones or snipers.” In all, according to the NGO, there is a “likelihood of voluntary targeting” for 70 of the 220 journalists killed in Gaza. Reporters Without Borders has filed five complaints with the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists.

On August 10, 2025, their images made headlines across the world: in Gaza, five of their colleagues were killed by an Israeli airstrike. Among them was a correspondent for the Qatari channel Al Jazeera, whom the Israeli army admitted having targeted. One of the IDF spokespersons, Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, presents him as a terrorist: “Anas Al-Sharif was a member of the armed wing of Hamas. He had a registration number.” A few days later, the philosopher and essayist Raphaël Enthoven wrote about X: “There are no journalists in Gaza, only killers, fighters or hostage-takers with press cards.” In France, this tweet triggered a media storm between opponents and supporters of Israeli policy in Gaza, the latter repeating on television sets the accusation according to which “Journalists in Gaza are linked to Hamas”.

Nine months later, Raphaël Enthoven agrees to return, in “Complément d’enquête”, to a sentence that he would not have “never have to write”, on his own terms, and who “sounded like a way of implying that the IDF victims were all guilty.” “Even if, he adds, I maintain, and this is how I should have said it, that there is no free press in Gaza.” From there to assimilating those who spread propaganda to Hamas fighters? The essayist says he doesn’t know “if people who were not combatants were targeted by the IDF”, more presumer “that the people who were targeted were in one way or another connected to the terrorist organization.”

How many journalists who died in Gaza are targeted by these accusations? The IFJ, the International Federation of Journalists, published a list of reporters killed. In total, 230 names as of December 31, 2025. For its part, an Israeli NGO, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, has listed the killed journalists who, according to it, are linked to armed groups in Gaza. “Complementary investigation” crossed the two lists. If we are to believe the Israeli NGO, 107 of the journalists identified by the IFJ, or almost half, would be accomplices of the terrorists…

Excerpt from “Middle East: the war against information“, to see in “Complementary investigation” on June 4, 2026.

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