CPJ slams Zionist regime as ‘regional killer of journalists’ after deadly strike on Yemeni media

According to the CPJ, Zionist regime’s killing of journalists in Yemen is the deadliest press attack in over a decade since the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines, where 32 journalists were martyred in an ambush.

“Since October 7, 2023, Israel has emerged as a regional killer of journalists, with repeated incidents in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and now Yemen confirming Israel’s longstanding pattern of labeling journalists as terrorists or propagandists to justify their killings,” said CPJ Regional Program Director Sara Qudah.

“Israel’s September 10 strikes on two newspaper offices in Yemen mark an alarming escalation, extending Israel’s war on journalism far beyond the genocide in Gaza. 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.”

According to CPJ, the journalists were martyred in multiple strikes on the offices of Yemen’s September 26 newspaper and Al-Yemen newspaper, both located inside the government’s Moral Guidance Directorate headquarters. All but one of the dead, who was a child, worked for the two outlets.

Nasser Al-Khadri, editor-in-chief of 26 September, described the killings as an “unprecedented massacre of journalists,” telling CPJ that multiple strikes hit the newsroom at around 4:45 p.m. as staff were finalizing publication of the weekly paper, the official outlet of the Yemeni army.

“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,” he said, adding that many colleagues were reduced to body parts.

Al-Khadri also told CPJ that “the Israeli military destroyed the newspapers’ facilities, printing presses, and archives.

“The archive of 26 September is one of Yemen’s most important historical records, documenting the country’s history since the last century, and its loss is deeply painful.”

Pattern of attacks on journalists

CPJ said the Yemen strike mirrors earlier Zionist regime’s attacks in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, where journalists have repeatedly been killed after being branded as militants or propagandists without credible evidence.

The organization stressed that journalists are civilians protected under international law, including those working for state-run or armed group-affiliated outlets, unless they directly participate in hostilities.

Abdulrahman Mohammed Mutahar, a journalist living 500 meters from the site, told CPJ the attack caused “massive explosions unlike anything Sana’a had seen since 2015.”

He said about eight missiles reduced the Moral Guidance Directorate headquarters to rubble, leaving some journalists’ bodies buried underneath.

“Targeting journalists aims to silence the truth,” Nabil Al-Asidi, a board member of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, told CPJ, noting that several of those killed were prominent, long-standing members of his union.

CPJ has long documented Israel’s tactic of portraying journalists as combatants to excuse their killing.

The 2023 Deadly Pattern report detailed five unsubstantiated claims of terrorism or militant activity against journalists killed by Israeli forces between 2004 and 2018.

According to CPJ research, since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has killed 193 journalists and media workers in Gaza, six in Lebanon, three in Iran, and 31 in Yemen.

In Iran, one journalist and one media worker died on June 16, after an Israeli strike hit the headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

Another journalist was martyred the previous day in an Israeli strike near Quds Square in Tehran as he was driving from a meeting.