Thirty one journalists and media staff were killed by Israeli strikes on newspaper offices in Yemen last week in what the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Friday was the deadliest attack on journalists in the last 16 years.
Israel struck a newspaper complex in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, which housed three Houthi-connected media outlets on 10 September. At the time, members of the Yemeni army’s press arm were finishing the weekly print edition, according to the publication’s editor-in-chief, which increased the number of journalists present during the strike.
At least 35 people were killed in the attack, including one child who accompanied a journalist to the office, and 131 were wounded, according to the Houthi ministry of health. All of the journalists worked for either the Houthi-affiliated 26 September newspaper or Yemen newspaper.
The attack was the second-deadliest against journalists that the CPJ had ever recorded, after the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines in 2009.
“It is a brutal and unjustified attack that targeted innocent people whose only crime was working in the media field, armed with nothing but their pens and words,” Nasser al-Khadri, the editor-in-chief of 26 September, told the CPJ.
Killing journalists or media workers, even those who have an affiliation to armed groups, is against international humanitarian law unless they directly take part in hostilities.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had struck “military targets” in Sana’a that included the Houthi public relations department, which distributed “psychological terror”. It also said the strikes were in retaliation to continued Houthi attacks on Israel, which the Houthis have said are meant as “solidarity” with Palestinians during the war on Gaza.
The Houthis have consistently launched missiles at Israel since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza, and have targeted ships in the Red Sea, which they determine to have an association with Israel.
The CPJ said the attack in Yemen comes as part of a larger pattern of Israel killing media workers across the Middle East and excusing those killings by attempting to portray journalists as combatants. Since 7 October 2023, Israel has killed 247 journalists in Gaza, according to the UN human rights office.
When Israel bombed media tents and killed six journalists, including Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, in Gaza City on 10 August, Israel claimed without evidence that they were members of Hamas. On 26 August, an Israeli double-tap strike on al-Nasser hospital in southern Gaza killed five more journalists.
In Lebanon, Israel also killed journalists affiliated with pro-Hezbollah channels, as well as members of Hezbollah’s media office, all of whom would be considered civilians under international law.
“Since 7 October 2023, Israel has emerged as a regional killer of journalists … This latest killing spree is not only a grave violation of international law, but also a terrifying warning to journalists across the region: no place is safe,” said the CPJ regional programme director, Sara Qudah.
There has been a global outcry against Israel’s systematic killing of journalists in Gaza, but no apparent consequences for Israeli soldiers who killed media workers. The killing of Yemeni journalists went largely ignored by governments, creating fears of further impunity.
