The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate documents 192 Israeli violations against journalists

August 16, 2026 (PEN) The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate documented 192 cases of detention and prevention from coverage carried out by the Israeli occupation forces during the first half of 2026, within what it described as an "integrated pattern" of pressure on the journalism profession.

The union’s freedoms committee reported in its report issued on Saturday that during the same period it had recorded 27 arrests, 29 cases of live ammunition being fired, 78 cases of gas and sound bombs being fired, 22 cases of equipment being seized or destroyed, 7 raids on homes or media institutions, and 3 cases of media institutions being closed.

The committee noted that the "Israeli occupation system," consisting of the army, settlers, officials, the judicial system, and the media establishment, continues to target the Palestinian journalistic reality with various forms of repression, up to and including murder.

She explained that the number of cases of detention and prevention of coverage reached 314 cases in 2023, 396 cases in 2024, and 425 cases in 2025, reflecting an annual increase in the pace of violations.

The report pointed out that preventing coverage not only disrupts the transmission of real-time news, but also hinders the documentation and proof of crimes in the long term.

Mohammed Al-Lahham, head of the union's freedoms committee, said that the figures do not reflect isolated individual attacks, but rather "a recurring pattern of using military, security and judicial tools to restrict access to, documentation and dissemination of information."

He added that the continuation of this approach and its combination of killing, detention, prevention, threats and destruction, along with preventing the independent international press from entering the Gaza Strip, makes the issue go beyond the framework of a "transient security measure" and calls for opening an independent and systematic international investigation into the nature, objectives and legitimacy of these policies.