Israel is attempting to "systematically eliminate" journalists in occupied Palestine in a bid to cover up evidence of genocide and war crimes, according to a UN report.
The paper, authored by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, says that "destruction of truth" has been integral to the assault on Gaza, and describes Israel's attempts to control information as "mediacide".
Israeli forces have killed hundreds of journalists in the occupied territories since October 2023 while most of Gaza's infrastructure lies in ruins.
Albanese will present her findings to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.
The report identifies three ways in which Israel and its supporters attempt to destroy or hide evidence of crimes committed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
These include the systematic targeting of journalists and communications infrastructure, and the Israeli government's attempts to censor and manipulate information.
It also highlights the complicity of Western news organisations and technology platforms, which it accuses of promoting Israeli narratives and suppressing Palestinian voices.
"These practices have not merely accompanied genocide but have facilitated its commission and obstructed accountability," the report reads.
The UN documented the killing of almost 300 Palestinian journalists between October 2023 and February this year. Hundreds of others have been wounded or unlawfully detained by Israeli authorities.
Some were killed in indiscriminate attacks while at least 70 are known to have been deliberately targeted.
Israel has replicated its assault on Palestinian journalists in its other conflicts in Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, where dozens of other media workers have been killed in airstrikes.
The report says that the Israeli military has wiped out more than 80% of Gaza's communications infrastructure and damaged another 12%. By October 2025, Israeli forces had destroyed 125 media offices and institutions, including news agency headquarters, broadcast towers and radio stations, it says.
Blackouts caused by the damage have prevented local journalists from broadcasting events and people outside the strip from verifying information.
The destruction has gone hand-in-hand with the Israeli government's media restrictions, which have prevented foreign journalists reporting from Gaza and censored thousands of articles related to the war.
"In the ongoing genocide, the systematic elimination of media witnesses and the destruction of the means of documentation are probative of genocidal intent," the report says.
"They reveal an effort not only to destroy a protected group, but also to destroy the conditions in which that destruction can be seen, documented, remembered and ultimately adjudicated," it continues.
