Awad Rajoob and Mohammad Sio
04 January 2026•Update: 04 January 2026
RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL
Israel committed 99 violations against Palestinian journalists in December 2025, ranging from killings and physical assaults to arrests and bans on media coverage, a report by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said Sunday.
In its monthly report on the state of media freedoms in the Palestinian territories, the syndicate said Israeli forces “continued in December 2025 a policy of systematic targeting of Palestinian journalism through a wide wave of serious violations.”
The syndicate’s freedoms committee documented 99 violations during the month, reflecting “a high level of repression and restrictions” on journalistic work, the organization said.
The report said one journalist was killed while performing field duties, two journalists were seriously injured as a result of shelling and direct targeting, and two relatives of journalists were killed -- all in the Gaza Strip.
In the occupied West Bank, the syndicate recorded 48 cases of detention and prevention from media coverage, 15 assaults involving tear gas and stun grenades while journalists were working, two attempted deliberate car ramming attacks against journalists, nine incidents of weapons being brandished and journalists threatened, and six cases of direct verbal threats.
The report said restrictions on coverage and the suppression of field reporting indicate “a systematic Israeli policy aimed at preventing the transmission of images and facts,” particularly in Gaza and the West Bank cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jenin, and Ramallah.
The syndicate documented two cases of beatings and physical abuse of journalists, the destruction of one piece of journalistic equipment while in use, and the destruction of two journalists’ homes as a result of Israeli strikes.
It also recorded two arrests, two summonses for security interrogation, and two cases of organized incitement through Israeli media outlets and information centers that “falsely claimed journalists were affiliated with armed groups.”
The syndicate documented one attack carried out by illegal Israeli settlers against a Palestinian journalist under the protection of the Israeli army, saying this “confirms the continued integration of roles between the occupation army and settlers in attacking journalists, within an environment of total impunity.”
In early December 2025, Gaza’s government media office said 257 Palestinian journalists had been killed during the Israeli genocide on Gaza that began on Oct. 8, 2023, and lasted for two years until a ceasefire agreement took effect in October 2025.
Since the ceasefire agreement came into effect, the Israeli army has committed hundreds of violations, killing 420 Palestinians and wounding 1,184 others, according to the Health Ministry.
The ceasefire halted Israel’s two-year war that killed nearly 71,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, injured more than 171,200 others, and left the enclave in ruins.
