Israel’s war on journalism: Silencing the truth about Iran’s missile impact

While committing crimes against various countries in the region, the Israeli regime has intensified its criminal campaign against the media — one example being its targeting of Iran’s state broadcaster.

According to the latest reports, Israeli forces raided the home of Nasser Al-Lahham, journalist and director of Al Mayadeen News Network’s office in Palestine, and arrested him early this morning. During the raid in Bethlehem, Israeli troops vandalized his property.

In a report titled “There Is Real Fear,” Middle East Eye analyzed Israel’s increasing violence, harassment, and censorship of the media following its aggression against Iran.

According to Middle East Eye, journalists working in the occupied territories face escalating harassment, violence, and restrictions on their ability to report, exacerbated by the military censorship imposed during last month’s war on Iran.

Palestinian journalists in the occupied territories report bearing the brunt of these intensified restrictions, with some saying they have been attacked by police or hostile mobs while working.

Israel’s military censorship unit — part of the military intelligence — holds wide-ranging powers, requiring both domestic and international media outlets to obtain approval for their reports.

Earlier this year, +972 Magazine, citing annual data it has compiled since 2011, reported an “unprecedented increase” in the Israeli regime’s use of military censorship in 2024.

The magazine revealed that in the past year, Israel’s military censor banned the publication of 1,635 articles and censored an additional 6,265, intervening on average in 21 news reports per day — about 38% of over 20,000 reports submitted for review.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that journalists in the occupied territories have faced severe suppression since the start of the Gaza war. RSF also accused Israel of “destroying journalism” in Palestine and emphasized that the occupied territories and Palestine have become the world’s most dangerous places for journalists.

According to statistics, the Israeli regime has killed more than 200 media personnel since the beginning of its war on Gaza.

Last month, Israel’s military censor issued a new set of guidelines that further limited journalists’ ability to report. Among them was a rule requiring media outlets to obtain written permission to report from sites hit by Iranian missiles — labeling any journalists who failed to comply as offenders.

These restrictions were condemned by the Israeli Journalists Association — which represents both Israeli and Palestinian journalists in the occupied territories — as “the final nail in the coffin of press freedom in Israel.”

International organizations have also expressed concern about this trend.

Anthony Bellanger, Secretary-General of the International Federation of Journalists, stated: “This wave of attacks and censorship targeting Palestinian, Israeli, and foreign journalists in Israel is deeply troubling.”

Razi Tatur, a Palestinian journalist from the Galilee region who holds press credentials for the occupied territories, said he faced harassment for days while trying to report on Iran’s missile strikes for Jordan’s Al-Ghad TV.

He described violent encounters with Israeli police while reporting from a building in Tel Aviv after it was struck by Iranian missiles, stating that the police insulted him and his colleagues with terms like “terrorist” and obstructed their work.

Tatur also recounted a similar experience while reporting from a hotel room overlooking the city of Haifa, which ended with police raiding his room. He said the police detained him and his team for about three hours and confiscated their equipment.

He added: “They summoned me to the police station the next day. I believe my experiences are part of a systematic Israeli policy to intimidate journalists.”

Tatur continued: “Human rights groups and journalist unions may support us legally or in court, but they can’t really protect us — that’s the reality. There is fear, real fear, among journalists, and this fear is intentional. They’ve made an example of us to intimidate others.”

In other incidents, journalists complained that Israeli police prevented them from accessing sites hit by Iranian missiles.

Following Iran’s missile strikes on Rishon LeZion near Tel Aviv, reporters from Al Arabiya, as well as Turkish and Egyptian news outlets, said they were denied access to the area.

Anton Shalhat, head of the “I’lam” Media Center, which supports Palestinian journalists working in the occupied territories, reported that at least 30 Palestinian journalists experienced disruptions while trying to report during the days of Iran’s missile strikes.

Shalhat said: “These incidents include physical attacks, threats, intimidation, and confiscation of equipment. While the police were responsible for many of these cases, journalists also reported being threatened and attacked by mobs emboldened by a permissive environment that enables lawbreaking.”

Some Israeli journalists observed that harassment of colleagues working in Arab media organizations has increased since the Israeli government banned the Qatari Al Jazeera network from reporting in the occupied territories in May of last year.

Oren Ziv, a photographer and journalist for Local Call, a Hebrew-language news site, stated: “After Al Jazeera was shut down, they needed to create an internal enemy. In my opinion, the harassment of Arab journalists is not about censorship or security — it’s about abusing censorship.”

Ziv added: “Journalists and photographers are now endangered due to this attack on press freedom led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi. They’ve essentially authorized every citizen, guard, police officer, and volunteer to harass and bully photographers — not just Arab and Palestinian ones, but also foreign and even Israeli journalists.”