The Unpunished Massacre: A Eulogy for the Journalists of Yemen

5 minutes read time.

As Americans, we hold a foundational respect for the necessity of a free press, even when we disagree with its conclusions. It is a right we believe should be defended everywhere, a non-negotiable pillar of a free society. Under the Geneva Convention and the laws of armed conflict, journalists are declared non-targets, a principle that separates civilized nations from rogue states. On September 10th, in the heart of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, that principle was systematically and brutally incinerated by a barrage of Israeli missiles, and the world has responded with a deafening, complicit silence.

At approximately 4:45 PM local time, as the staff of the 26 September newspaper were finalizing their weekly print edition, Israeli airstrikes struck the government press complex. The attack was not a single, errant bomb; it was a series of massive explosions—witnesses said as many as eight missiles—that reduced the headquarters of the Moral Guidance Directorate to rubble. Inside, journalists and media workers at three Houthi-connected outlets were killed in what their editor-in-chief, Nasser Al-Khadri, described as an “unprecedented massacre of journalists”.

The final toll was catastrophic: 31 journalists and media workers were murdered. A child who had accompanied a parent to work was also killed. In total, the Houthi Health Ministry reported 35 people were killed and 131 were wounded. It was the deadliest single attack on the press anywhere in the world in 16 years, second only to the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not deny the attack. Instead, they offered a justification that has become their standard, chilling refrain. They claimed to have targeted the “Houthi military public relations headquarters,” which they said was responsible for distributing “propaganda messages” and “psychological terror”. The IDF did not, however, respond to requests for any evidence of military activity at the site.

This justification is a transparent and illegal pretext. Human rights advocates and legal experts are unequivocal: under international law, journalists are protected civilians unless they are directly participating in hostilities. As Niku Jafarnia, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated, “Propaganda is not enough to make a media institution a military target”. To be a legitimate target, they must be “actively contributing to military action, for example, engaging in military communications”. By its own admission, the IDF was targeting a “public relations department” for its messaging. This is not a gray area; it is a bright red line, and Israel crossed it with devastating force. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has rightly classified these 31 killings as murders—the deliberate targeting of journalists for their work.

This massacre in Yemen cannot be viewed in isolation. It is the alarming escalation of a systematic, regional war on journalism being waged by the Israeli military. According to the CPJ, since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 233 journalists and media workers across Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and now Yemen. The tactic is always the same: smear journalists as terrorists or propagandists to justify their killings, a practice the CPJ has documented as a “Deadly Pattern” going back decades. An investigation by the Israeli magazine +972 even found that the IDF runs a “Legitimization Cell” dedicated to framing Gaza-based journalists as Hamas operatives to blunt global outrage.

We saw this playbook in Gaza, with strikes on media tents and the killing of Al Jazeera employees who Israel alleged, without evidence, were “terrorists”. We saw it in Iran, with a strike on the state broadcaster’s headquarters, which the Israeli Defense Minister pledged would “disappear”. We saw it in Lebanon, with a strike on a compound where journalists for pro-Hezbollah channels were staying. And now, we see its apotheosis in Yemen. As Sara Qudah, the CPJ’s regional director, stated, this attack “marks an alarming escalation, extending Israel’s war on journalism far beyond the genocide in Gaza”.

The human cost is staggering. Not only were lives and families destroyed, but so was a piece of Yemen’s history. The attack destroyed the newspaper’s printing presses and its century-old archives, a loss Al-Khadri called “deeply painful”. In a final, ghoulish act of cruelty, the funerals for the slain journalists were themselves disrupted by additional Israeli strikes days later.

And the response from the world? Silence. As you noted, Charles, the story was barely covered in the U.S. media. This international silence is a green light. “If you can kill 31 journalists in one night, you can kill 10 in another day,” said a CPJ researcher. The lack of condemnation will only further endanger journalists everywhere.

This is happening while Yemeni journalists are already “paying a double price,” as one advocate put it. They face deadly airstrikes from Israel and systematic repression from local actors, including the Houthis, who use the war as a pretext to expand their own censorship.

As Americans, we must be outraged. We have an obligation to defend the rights of a free press everywhere, even when we don’t agree with what is being published. The blatant, repeated, and unpunished slaughter of journalists by a key U.S. ally is a moral stain. It is a very good reason to cut all ties with Israel right now. While that may not happen, our silence is a betrayal of our most fundamental values.