Israel has killed at least 706 family members of Palestinian journalists since the start of its genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.The syndicate’s Freedoms Committee said in a report released late on Saturday that Israeli forces are systematically targeting the families of journalists as part of what it called a war aimed at silencing Palestinian reporting.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe report said the attacks represent a deliberate strategy rather than deaths as a result of war.Israeli violence against journalists has “evolved to take on a more dangerous and brutal dimension, represented by targeting the families and relatives of journalists, in a clear attempt to turn journalistic work into an existential burden for which sons, wives, fathers, and mothers pay the price”, the union said.Muhammad al-Lahham, head of the Freedoms Committee, said the pattern of attacks from 2023 to 2025 exposes Israel’s intent to crush independent reporting in Gaza.Targeting journalists’ families, he said, “reveals that the Israeli occupation is waging a comprehensive war on the truth, making no distinction between the camera and the child, nor between the pen and the home”.“The blood of the journalists’ families will remain a living witness to the crime of trying to silence the Palestinian voice,” al-Lahham added.Witnesses to family killingsThe committee said Israeli forces killed 436 relatives of journalists in 2023, 203 in 2024 and at least 67 this year. The deaths continued even after many families were forcibly displaced and sought shelter in tents and makeshift camps, it said. Advertisement The syndicate cited a recent case near Khan Younis, where the bodies of journalist Hiba …
