More than 250 media outlets across 70 countries blacked out front pages, websites and broadcasts Monday to protest Israel’s killing of journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Reporters without Borders, which organized the protest, said 220 journalists have been killed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip in less than two years.
"At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed. This isn't just a war against Gaza, it's a war against journalism," Reporters without Borders Director General Thibaut Bruttin said in a statement.
After five journalists were among those killed in Israel's attack on Nasser Hospital last week, Israeli Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir expressed "regret" over civilian casualties.
Bruttin said journalists in Gaza were being deliberately targeted, killed and defamed. "Without them, who will alert us to the famine? Who will expose war crimes? Who will show us the genocides?"
He said Palestinian journalists must be protected and should be taken in by other countries if they want to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
Israel has killed more than 62,700 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
