Journalist Fadi Khalifa was killed on Sunday evening following a direct Israeli airstrike while inspecting his home in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, southeast Gaza City. His death raises the number of Palestinian journalists killed since 7 October 2023 to 231, marking one of the deadliest periods for media workers in modern history.
Khalifa was not the only journalist targeted that day; hours earlier, journalist Hossam Saleh al-Adlouni was killed along with his wife and three children, Abdulrahman, Shahd, and Fayrouz, when an Israeli airstrike hit their tent in the al-Qarara area, north of Khan Younis.
These systematic attacks on journalists in Gaza are no longer isolated incidents; they reflect an escalating policy aimed at silencing every independent voice and potential witness to the crimes being committed against civilians. The deliberate targeting of media workers has become an extension of a war machine that spares neither civilians nor combatants, homes nor hospitals, cameras nor weapons.
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has waged a campaign of genocide against the population of Gaza, killing and injuring tens of thousands and obliterating entire neighbourhoods without warning or safe corridors, all in plain view of the world, with no legal or moral restraint to halt the massacres.
As the war enters its 647th day, the machinery of death continues unabated, with civilians in Gaza deliberately and repeatedly targeted in blatant violation of all legal and humanitarian norms.
The repeated targeting of journalists, humanitarian workers, and medical staff makes clear that this is not merely a war on infrastructure but an attempt to erase the image, the word, and the witnesses alongside the victims themselves.
The killing of Khalifa and al-Adlouni and their families is not simply another statistic; it constitutes a grave crime added to a long record of violations that demand accountability, not silence.