On September 16, 2025, the city of Sanaa, Yemen, was shrouded in mourning as thousands gathered for the funeral of 31 journalists killed in a devastating Israeli airstrike just a week earlier. The attack, which took place on September 10, targeted the offices of the 26 September and Al-Yemen newspapers, completely destroying the headquarters and leaving over 20 other journalists and dozens of civilians wounded. According to local media, it was the largest single attack on the press ever seen in Yemen—a country already battered by years of conflict and humanitarian crisis.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a global media watchdog, did not mince words, calling the strike "the deadliest global attack [on journalists] in 16 years" and "the second deadliest single attack on the press ever recorded by CPJ." The only deadlier incident on record was the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines, where 32 journalists lost their lives in a politically motivated ambush. The CPJ further noted that, over the past decade, one in six journalists murdered worldwide have been killed by Israeli forces.
The September 10 strikes in Sanaa were not isolated. They came amid a broader escalation in the region, as Israel has launched repeated airstrikes in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran since the outbreak of its war in Gaza in October 2023. According to the CPJ and corroborated by Common Dreams and NBC News, Israel has killed more than 292 journalists across West Asia in less than two years—247 in Gaza alone, 10 in Lebanon, 32 in Yemen, and three in Iran. The war in Gaza, in particular, has been described as the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history.
The Israeli government has often justified attacks on civilian infrastructure by claiming that such sites are used by militants. In the case of the Sanaa newspaper offices, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was targeting what it called the "Public Relations Department" of the Houthis (also known as Ansar-Allah), alleging that the newspapers distributed propaganda and psychological terror on behalf of the group. The IDF stated on X that the offices were "responsible for distributing and disseminating propaganda messages in the media, including speeches by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik and statements from spokesman Yahya Saree." For this reason, Israeli officials described the journalists as "military targets."
However, the CPJ and international legal experts have pushed back firmly against this rationale. Niku Jafarnia, a Bahrain and Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch, explained that "radio and television facilities are civilian objects and cannot be targeted. They are legitimate targets only if they are used in a way that makes an effective contribution to military action." She added that civilian broadcasting facilities are not rendered legitimate military targets simply because they are pro-Houthi or anti-Israel, or because they report on alleged violations of the laws of war.
The timing of the attack was particularly tragic. Nasser Al-Khadri, editor-in-chief of 26 September, recounted to the CPJ that the strike hit his newsroom at approximately 4:45 pm, just as staff were finishing up the weekly edition of the paper. "It is a brutal and unjustified attack that targeted innocent people whose only crime was working in the media field, armed with nothing but their pens and words," Al-Khadri said. Because the publication is weekly, staff were gathered in greater numbers than usual to prepare for distribution, which contributed to the high casualty count.
The aftermath of the strike was harrowing. Alongside the journalists, at least four other people—including a child who had accompanied a parent to work—were killed, and the attack left 131 wounded, according to the Houthi ministry of health. The strikes also hit residential areas and a medical facility in Sanaa on the same day, further compounding the devastation.
Yemen's Grand Mufti, Shams al-Din Sharaf al-Din, denounced the assault as "a desperate attempt to silence the voice of truth and cover up the enemy's crimes." Speaking at the funeral, he declared, "The blood of these media martyrs will not be wasted; it will fuel the resilience of the Yemeni people and elevate their awareness, making it harder for the enemy to conceal its crimes." The two targeted newspapers, in a joint statement, mourned their fallen colleagues and affirmed that "the crime against the Yemeni journalists is part of a series of heinous crimes perpetrated by Israel against journalists and media workers, who report on its criminality and brutality including the killing, the siege, the destruction, and the targeting of all aspects of life in Gaza and Palestine."
International law is clear: journalists, including those working for state-run or armed group-affiliated outlets, are considered civilians and are protected unless they directly participate in hostilities. The CPJ emphasized this point in its report, noting that "as civilians, journalists are protected under international law, including those working for state-run or armed group-affiliated outlets, unless they take direct part in hostilities." Yet, as Sara Qudah, CPJ's regional program director, pointed out, Israel has developed a pattern of labeling journalists as terrorists or propagandists to justify their killings. "Israel is engaging in the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented," the organization stated on its website.
The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen including Sanaa, have been launching missiles and drones at Israel since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza. They have described their actions as support for Palestinians under siege, vowing to halt their attacks only if Israel reaches an agreement with Hamas to end the conflict. In retaliation, Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes across Yemen, targeting not just military sites but also civilian infrastructure, airports, and, as seen in Sanaa, media offices.
The international response has been muted. While there has been a global outcry against Israel's systematic killing of journalists in Gaza, the deaths of Yemeni journalists have largely gone ignored by governments. The Foreign Press Association, representing international media in Israel and the Palestinian territories, has called on Israel "to halt its abhorrent practice of targeting journalists." Meanwhile, Reuters has reportedly stopped sharing the locations of its teams in Gaza with Israeli forces, citing safety concerns after repeated attacks on journalists.
For many in the region, the Sanaa airstrike is a chilling warning. As Sara Qudah put it, "This latest killing spree is not only a grave violation of international law, but also a terrifying warning to journalists across the region: no place is safe." The joint statement from Al-Yemen and 26 September newspapers echoed this sentiment, declaring, "The Zionist killing machine will never stop the voice of the truth no matter how far it goes in spilling the blood of journalists, who bear the responsibility of reporting the truth and exposing the Zionist crimes."
As Yemenis buried their colleagues, the sense of loss was palpable. The blood of the Yemeni journalists, the newspapers wrote, "was mixed with the blood of their late colleagues in Gaza, who have been deliberately targeted by treacherous Zionist strikes." In a region where war and repression have become daily realities, the deaths in Sanaa serve as a stark reminder of the dangers faced by those who dare to bear witness and speak the truth.