RSF - Reporters sans frontières
RSF - Reporters sans frontières
05/07/2025 | Press release | Archived content
Gaza: RSF condemns the killing of freelance journalist Yahya Sobeih in an Israeli strike
Independent reporter Yahya Sobeih was killed by an Israeli airstrike in downtown Gaza City on 7 May. In the year and six months of Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has killed nearly 200 journalists, including at least 44 slain while working. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this latest murder and calls for urgent international action to stop the massacre of journalists in Gaza.
Around 1:30 p.m. on 7 May, Yahya Sobeih headed to the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, where the Israeli army had just bombed a popular restaurant. The freelance reporter, who has over 170,000 followers on his Instagram account, was preparing to cover the massacre of dozens of civilians. But once he arrived, a second Israeli airstrike claimed him as a casualty. Yahya Sobeih was killed on the spot, as evidenced by the images of his lifeless body, his face covered in blood, posted on social media.
"Enough! Words fail to convey the endless nightmare faced by journalists in Gaza. Yahya Sobeih was torn from his profession and his family by a bomb from the Israeli armed forces. His name now joins the list of almost 200 journalists killed in Gaza over the past 18 months. The impunity for crimes committed against these reporters cannot be tolerated, yet the international community continues to fail each day to force Israel to protect Palestinian journalists. Reporters Without Borders will pursue its campaign to the very end to ensure that justice is served and those responsible are held to account.
Thibaut Bruttin
RSF Director General
According to RSF analysis, Yahya Sobeih is the 44th journalistkilled due to their work by the Israeli army in the past year and six months of the military offensive in Gaza. In total, the armed forces have killed nearly 200 journalists, silencing the professional witnesses of a military operation responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children. At the same time, Israeli authorities continue to deny access to the Gaza Strip to international and Israeli war correspondents unless they remain embedded with the Israeli Army. RSF has launched a petitioncalling for the border to be immediately opened to journalists.
Published on07.05.2025
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