Journalist Mohammad Bashir Al-Talmas was martyred early Tuesday after succumbing to injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike targeting civilians in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City. His death raises the number of Palestinian journalists killed since the onset of Israeli aggression on 7 October 2023 to 204, underscoring the occupation’s systematic war on truth.

Al-Talmas, 40, a founding editor at the Palestinian News Agency Safa, was critically injured near Al-Shorouk Hall. Despite emergency surgery, his injuries proved fatal. Since Safa’s establishment in 2009, Al-Talmas had authored countless reports exposing Israeli crimes and amplifying Palestinian resistance. His steadfast dedication to documenting the Palestinian struggle made him a beacon of truth in a relentless war on media.

The government media office in Gaza mourned Al-Talmas as a national loss and denounced Israel’s calculated targeting of journalists, which has turned Gaza into the deadliest place in the world for media workers. This crime follows the martyrdom of Al-Talmas’s colleague, Akram Al-Shafie, who was killed by Israeli strikes on 5 January 2024 near his home in Gaza City’s Al-Karama area.

In a statement, the media office called on international organisations, including the International Federation of Journalists and the Arab Journalists Union, to condemn these atrocities and expose the occupation’s crimes. The statement held Israel and its allies, including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for these heinous attacks and demanded urgent legal action to prosecute Israeli political and military leaders in international courts.

Palestinian press bodies further urged global intervention to end the genocide in Gaza, protect civilians and journalists, and stop the deliberate targeting of the media. As Gaza’s journalists continue to bear witness to the suffering of their people, the loss of Al-Talmas reminds the world of the heavy price paid by those who dare to reveal the truth.