Photo: Vigil for slain journalists and media workers in front of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) building in Ottawa; August 11, 2025. Photo by Brent Patterson.
Speaking about the targeted airstrike murder on Sunday August 10 of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan has told Democracy Now!: “There are some — anything between 26 to 30 journalists who have been targeted in this campaign of assassination [by the Israeli military].”
Khan added: “The [Geneva] convention gives journalists civilian status, which means that, like all other civilians, they should not be targeted during the war. The problem is the journalists are not just civilians. …[But] they are much more like humanitarian workers. And journalists need to be recognized as humanitarian workers. There needs to be — I believe there needs to be additional protection given to them, because it shows how vulnerable they are, on the one hand, to attacks, and, on the other hand, how important their work is to the rest of the world, to any peace process, to any attempt to have accountability and justice for the victims.”
Canada on the targeting of journalists
So far, what we have seen publicly is Global Affairs Canada posting a social media message that says: “Canada condemns the killing (of) Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza. Journalists are civilians — targeting them is unacceptable. We call for full accountability and for the protection of media everywhere.”
Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders states: “Journalists and other media professionals often face the same risks as HRDs precisely because of their work. Because they criticize authority figures, report on criminal activity, and speak the truth, they are often targeted by governments, paramilitaries, armed groups, criminal organizations, and security personnel.”
The Voices at Risk guidelines further note as a “best practice”: “Missions could organize regular meetings with journalists, both foreign and local, to gather information about their situations and other local issues.”
Up to 270+ journalists and media workers killed
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has noted: “With Sunday’s killing of six journalists, 192 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israeli-Gaza war on October 7, 2023. At least 184 of those journalists were Palestinians killed by Israel.” A spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres has stated that at least 242 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. An Al Jazeera has reported: “Nearly 270 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza in 22 months of war – or about 13 journalists every month – according to a tally by Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in 2022.”
Outside of Gaza (82) and Lebanon (3), CPJ documented the killing of 39 other journalists and media workers in 16 nations, with the deadliest being Sudan (6), Pakistan (6), Mexico (5), Syria (4), Myanmar (3), Iraq (3), and Haiti (2) during 2024.
Human rights defenders killed
The Dublin-based organization Front Line Defenders (the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders) has also documented the killing of 31 Palestinian human rights defenders in 2023 and 2024.
They state “those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”
Arms embargo now
UN experts have stated that “continuing to support Israel materially or politically, especially via arms transfers, and the provision of private military and security services risks complicity in genocide and other serious international crimes.”
Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to call on Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Canadian government to immediately suspend any transfers of weapons, ammunition and military components to Israel and to stop any military assistance or support that is likely to violate international humanitarian law.
PBI-Canada has also signed the Arms Embargo Now statement that says: “As the catastrophe wrought by Israel’s continued assault on Gaza grows, Canadian civil society organizations across multiple sectors are calling on the Canadian government to immediately suspend all trade in arms and military technology with Israel.”
Vigil in Ottawa, August 11, 2025.
March in Ottawa, August 12, 2025.
Al Jazeera feature article (December 31, 2024).
