In 2024, military censorship in Israel reached the most extreme levels since +972 Magazine began collecting data in 2011. Over the course of the year, the censor completely banned the publication of 1,635 articles and partially censored another 6,265. On average, the censor intervened in about 21 news reports per day last year — more than double the previous peak of about 10 daily interventions recorded during the last war in Gaza in 2014 (Operation Protective Edge), and over three times the non-war-time average of 6.2 per day.

Under Israeli law, any article dealing with the broadly-defined category of “security issues” must undergo military censorship review, and editorial teams are responsible for deciding which piece to submit based on their own judgement.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 168 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military during the war, more than in any other recorded violent conflict in recent decades. Other organizations place the number as high as 232. In collaborative investigations with Forbidden Stories, +972 revealed a pattern of Gazan journalists killed by the army merely for operating drones, or being attacked by army drones when clearly identified as press. Additionally, Israel treats journalists working for media outlets affiliated with Hamas as legitimate military targets, and on more than one occasion claimed that other journalists it killed were connected to Hamas, usually without presenting any evidence.

At the same time, Israel has been systematically arresting and imprisoning Palestinian journalists from both Gaza and the West Bank, often without charges, as a form of punishment for critical reporting. This repression has accelerated during the war, as seen in the banning of media outlets such as Al-Mayadeen and Al-Jazeera from operating in Israel