UN experts have called on countries around the world to take action to protect Palestinian journalists in Gaza as Israeli attacks have killed at least 248 media workers in the enclave since October 2023, Al Jazeera reports.

“On the one hand, Israel continues to deny access to any international media, and on the other, it kills with impunity local journalists who are the world’s only professional lens into the agony of genocide and famine unfolding in Gaza,” the experts said in a statement.

“Even as the journalists starve, lose family members, sleep in tents and get targeted by the Israeli military like the rest of Gaza’s population, they have continued to courageously bear witness to atrocities committed by the Israeli military.”

They called for independent criminal investigations into Israel’s killings of journalists, as well as “full reparations and justice for their families”.