The Committee to Protect Journalists said on 12 August that the period since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on 7 October 2023 has become the deadliest for the profession since the group began keeping records in 1992. CPJ has verified the deaths of at least 186 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon over the past 22 months. A separate tally from Gaza’s government media office puts the figure at 238, while the Palestinian rights monitor Shireen cites 269 fatalities, underscoring the difficulty of confirming casualties in the sealed-off enclave. The latest spike in the toll followed an Israeli air strike on 10 August that killed five Al Jazeera journalists near Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The attack drew condemnations from the United Nations, the European Union and press-freedom groups, which called it a grave breach of international humanitarian law. Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas operatives embedded in the media and continues to bar most foreign reporters from entering Gaza, a policy critics argue shields potential violations from independent scrutiny. Human-rights advocates are urging an impartial investigation into the killings and renewed protections for journalists covering the conflict.