101 journalists killed since war broke out, Gaza media office says

More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, the Palestinian enclave's government media office said on Sunday.

The office said Ahmed Jamal al-Madhoun, deputy director of the al-Rai news agency, had been killed by an Israeli attack in the north of the strip, bringing the total number of journalists killed since Israel's indiscriminate war in Gaza began to 101 – an average of more than one killed a day across the 79 days of fighting.

The media office also estimated over 2,600 people had been detained by the Israeli military in Gaza, including eight journalists and 40 medical staff.

Diaa al-Kahlout, the Gaza bureau chief for The New Arab's Arabic-language edition al-Araby al-Jadeed, has been detained by Israeli for over two weeks.

Neither his family nor employer know what has become of him.

Al-Kahlout was arrested in the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza along with relatives and other civilians on 7 December. He and the others detained were stripped and beaten.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on 14 December that it had received reports from al-Kahlout's family and a number of released detainees about a "serious and continued deterioration" in the journalist's health.

The rights group said he had been suffering from a chest infection and high blood pressure prior to his arrest.

Reporters Without Borders has recently submitted two complaints to the International Criminal Court concerning the deaths of more than a dozen journalists killed since 7 October, when the Gaza war began.

Almost all were Palestinians but one was an Israeli who had been reporting on a Hamas attack on his kibbutz on 7 October.

The Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) previously said that it was "particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military," the organisation said.

Sherif Mansour, CPJ Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator, said the military had "killed more journalists in 10 weeks than any other army or entity has in any single year".