Opinion | As journalists risk their lives in Gaza, the West looks the other way
- Journalists reporting on the war in Gaza struggle to stay alive as they face restrictions from Israel
- The Western media marginalises Palestinian suffering in a manner similar to coverage of the Iraq war
On April 11, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stated that 95 journalists and media staff are among the more than 34,000 people killed since the war started on October 7. According to CPJ, 90 of them were Palestinians, three were Lebanese and two were Israelis.
As it receives support from the United States, Israel is restricting journalist access to combat areas. On March 31, Israeli forces bombed tents housing journalists at a hospital in Gaza. A day later, the Israeli parliament approved a law allowing the government to temporarily shut down the Qatari Al Jazeera channel. The Beiruit-based Al Mayadeen channel was banned in November.
After the bombing, an Egyptian journalist asked me how I see the media’s coverage of the war. The journalist, like many of his colleagues, was deeply angered by constant Israeli military attacks on reporters in Gaza, some of whom died not just while covering the war but while sheltering from it.
