CPJ: Israel Kills 31 Journalists in Sana’a, the Largest “Massacre” Against Media Since 2009

Yemen Monitor / Sana’a / Special Report:

Thirty-one journalists and media workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a media complex in Yemen last week, according to a report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday.

This attack was the deadliest against journalists since the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines 16 years ago, and the second most violent attack recorded by the New York-based non-governmental organization.

The committee stated that the attack, which occurred on September 10, 2025, targeted the offices of the newspapers “September 26” and “Al-Yemen” inside the “Moral Guidance Department” building, which is under Houthi control. This suggests that Israel is expanding its targeting of journalists and media outlets in the Middle East.

The Houthi-affiliated newspaper “September 26” was the first to announce the names of those killed in the attack. A Houthi newspaper official told the Committee to Protect Journalists that a child who was accompanying a journalist to work was also killed in the raids.

The CPJ confirmed that the Israeli attack on Yemen is consistent with a previous pattern of attacks in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, where Israel has repeatedly failed to distinguish between military targets and civilians. In justifying the killings, Israel has resorted to “discrediting” journalists by describing them as “terrorists” or “propaganda workers,” without providing reliable evidence.

The Israeli military claimed that the attacks targeted “military targets” in Sana’a and Al-Jawf, including the “Houthi Public Relations Department,” which it described as distributing “psychological terror.”

However, the Committee to Protect Journalists affirms that journalists are protected as civilians under international law, even if they work for state-affiliated or armed group media outlets, as long as they are not directly participating in hostilities.

Nico Jaffarnia, a Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights organization based in New York, which condemned the attack on the journalists, said: “Propaganda is not enough to make a media institution a military target. It must have an active role in military action, for example, by participating in military communications.”

Under international law, journalists are considered civilians unless they participate in armed combat or military operations.