Cliff Notes
- On 10 September, Israeli airstrikes on newspaper offices in Sanaa, Yemen, resulted in the deaths of 31 journalists and media support workers, marking the deadliest attack on the press since 2009 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
- The strike disproportionately affected civilian journalists with no military ties, prompting strong condemnation from Nasser al Khadri, editor-in-chief of the affected publication, who described it as an “unprecedented massacre of journalists.”
- The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) justified the attack by claiming it targeted military sites associated with the Houthi regime, asserting that some journalists killed were linked to Hamas.
Israeli strikes on Yemen newspaper offices mark deadliest attack on press in 16 years
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Israeli strikes on newspaper offices in Yemen killed 31 journalists and media support workers, according to the outlet struck and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Nasser al Khadri, editor-in-chief of the publication 26 September, told the CPJ that the offices in Sanaa were hit on the afternoon of 10 September.
A child, who had accompanied a journalist to work, was among the dead, Mr al Khadri said, while 22 journalists were injured.
The reported attack by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) marked the deadliest single strike on the press since 2009, according to the CPJ.
That year, 32 journalists were killed when a convoy was ambushed in the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines.
The newspaper is the official outlet of the Yemeni army, which is under the control of Houthi rebels in Sanaa.
The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS), which is affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists, acknowledged the 26 September publication was Houthi-controlled.
But it stressed that several civilian journalists with no military affiliation were among those killed in the strikes.
Speaking to the CPJ, Mr al Khadri said the strikes marked an “unprecedented massacre of journalists”.
“It is a brutal and unjustified attack that targeted innocent people whose only crime was working in the media field,” he added, “armed with nothing but their pens and words”.
The IDF said in a statement on 10 September that it had “struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime in the areas of Sanaa and Al Jawf in Yemen”, including the Houthi public relations department, which it said was “responsible for distributing propaganda messages in the media and psychological terror”.
In an email response to the CPJ’s questions about the strike on the 26 September offices on Thursday, the IDF again mentioned the Houthis’ public relations department, and said it was “responsible for distributing and disseminating propaganda messages in the media”.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said at the start of September that 220 journalists in Gaza had been killed by the Israeli army since October 2023.
The IDF has insisted its forces do not target the media, and has claimed some journalists killed have been members of Hamas.
It comes after five Al Jazeera employees were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza last month, including a journalist who feared he was going to be assassinated.
Anas al Sharif died alongside four of his colleagues from the network: Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa.
Analysis: Israel may say it is not targeting journalists – but it is certainly killing a lot of them
The IDF confirmed the strike – and alleged that al Sharif was a “terrorist” who “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation”.