Two more Palestinian journalists, Ahmed Anwar Al-Helu and his brother Mohammed, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the northwestern area of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Thursday evening, bringing the total number of media professionals killed since October 2023 to 217, according to the Government Media Office (GMO).
Ahmed Al-Helu worked in the design and editing department of Quds News Network. His death occurred just hours after Hassan Samour, a broadcaster with Al-Aqsa Voice Radio, was killed alongside 11 members of his family in a separate strike on Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis.
The GMO has denounced what it describes as the targeted killing of journalists, urging international media watchdogs—including the International Federation of Journalists and the Arab Journalists Union—to speak out against the continued attacks on press personnel in the Gaza Strip.
“These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a systematic pattern aimed at silencing the Palestinian narrative,” the GMO said in a statement.
Journalists in Gaza continue to work under increasingly perilous conditions amid the ongoing military campaign. The deaths of Al-Helu and Samour mark another grim milestone in what press freedom advocates have called one of the deadliest periods for journalists in recent history.
