ISRAEL has killed more journalists than any other nation on record, a media watchdog claimed on Wednesday.

The annual report of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Israel was responsible for 84 of the 129 media workers and journalists killed during 2025, far more than any other country, in what was the deadliest year on record. 

The CPJ pointed to “a persistent culture of impunity for attacks on the press” by Israeli military forces.

Most of the media workers killed by the Israelis were Palestinians, but they also killed 31 staff in Yemeni newspaper offices, according to the CPJ.

The CPJ report accuses Israel of being responsible for targeted killings, which the media group defines as murder, carrying out 38 of 47 deadly incidents they recorded globally.

In a statement the CPJ said: “Israel has now killed more journalists than any other government since CPJ began collecting records in 1992.”

But the group said the number could turn out to be much higher, as they have been unable to carry out a full verification due to reporting restrictions and humanitarian obstacles put in place by Israeli authorities.

“With much contemporaneous evidence now destroyed, the true number of Palestinian journalists in Gaza who were deliberately targeted by Israel may never be known,” the CPJ said.

In its report the watchdog accused Israeli forces of killing five Al Jazeera journalists, including Anas al-Sharif and three others “murdered” by an attack on a journalist tent in Gaza City.

The CPJ also named Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat among those targeted.

Since Israel began its retaliation to the October 7 2023 attack by Hamas and its allies, during which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage, Israel has killed nearly 300 journalists and media workers.

At least 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the fighting.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed since the so-called ceasefire, which came into force on October 10.

Israel has acknowledged that some journalists have been killed by IDF attacks, but accused them of having ties to armed groups. These claims have been rejected by the journalists’ employers and slammed by the CPJ as “deadly smears.”

Beyond Gaza, Sudan witnessed the most killings of media workers last year with nine killed. Six journalists have been killed in Mexico and four Ukrainian journalists were killed by Russian attacks, according to the CPJ report.