45 Winter 2025 1. Introduction According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), “at least 146 journalists and media workers” have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.1 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) claims that as of October 28, 2024, its “preliminary investigations showed that at least 131 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”2 The CPJ list3 shows that the majority of journalists have lost their lives due to “dangerous assignment,” i.e., because they had been in the vicinity of objects or persons attacked by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). However, there have also been allegations that “Israel – which banned foreign reporters from entering Gaza – targets journalists in the Palestinian territory to obscure the truth about its war crimes there.”4 These and other reports seem to insinuate that the killing of journalists and media workers during the Gaza war regularly qualifies as a violation of the law of armed conflict/international humanitarian law. The present article starts from the premise that since October 7, 2023, there is a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is a non-State organized armed group in a situation of protracted armed violence with the IDF.5 The fact that the IDF applies the law of international armed conflict is a policy decision that is without prejudice to the facts on the ground. The aim of the present article is to provide a brief assessment of the status and protection of journalists under international humanitarian law, and it arrives at the conclusion that the killing of journalists during the Gaza War is only illegal under exceptional circumstances. 2. Status of Journalists under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Leaving aside war correspondents6 and so-called “embedded journalists,”7 the only treaty provision explicitly dealing with journalists in armed conflict is Article 79 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I (AP I),8 which only applies in situations of international armed conflict and to which Israel is not a State party. The 1977 Additional Protocol II9 does not address the status and Journalists in the Gaza War – A Neglected Issue of International Humanitarian Law? Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg 1. “War in Gaza: Israel must be held accountable,” IFJ, available at https://www.ifj.org/war-in-gaza 2. “Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war,” CPJ (Nov. 20, 2024), available at https://cpj.org/2024/10/journalistcasualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/ 3. “160 Journalists and Media Workers Killed in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lebanon,” CPJ, available at https://cpj.org/data/killed/all/?status=Kille d&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&type%5B %5D=Journalist&type%5B%5D=Media%20Worker&cc_ fips%5B%5D=IS&cc_fips%5B%5D=LE&start_ year=2023&end_year=2024&group_by=year 4. Alice Speri, “How impunity fuels Israel’s attacks on journalists in Gaza and Lebanon,” AL JEZEERA (Oct. 25, 2024), available at https://www.aljazeera.com/ news/2024/10/25/how-impunity-fuels-israels-attackson-journalists-in-gaza-and-lebanon 5. ICRC, COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST GENEVA CONVENTION 427 (Cambridge University Press, 2016). 6. According to the Third Geneva Convention, 1949, 75 U.N.T.S. 135, art. 4A(4), war correspondents and journalists authorized to accompany the armed forces in times of an international armed conflict are entitled to prisoner of war status, if they fall into the hands of the enemy. 7. “Embedded journalists,” who do not necessarily qualify as war correspondents, are persons “assigned to a unit.” See LAW OF WAR MANUAL, OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL AT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (June 2015), ¶ 4.24, available at https://dod.defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/ pubs/Law-of-War-Manual-june-2015.pdf 8. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), June 8, 1977, 1125 U.N.T.S. 3. 9. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), June 8, 1977, 1125 U.N.T.S. 609.
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