US President Donald Trump overseeing ‘troubling deterioration’ in press freedom in US, Reporters Without Borders says.

Palestine has become the world’s most dangerous state for journalists amid Israel’s war on Gaza, with dozens of reporters likely killed specifically due to their work, a media freedom watchdog has said.

Israeli forces killed nearly 200 journalists in the first 18 months of the war, at least 42 of whom were slain while doing their job, Reporters Without Borders said on Friday as it released its World Press Freedom Index 2025.

“Trapped in the enclave, journalists in Gaza have no shelter and lack everything, including food and water,” said the Paris-based group, which is also known by its French acronym RSF.

“In the West Bank, journalists are routinely harassed and attacked by both settlers and Israeli forces, but repression reached new heights with a wave of arrests after 7 October, when impunity for crimes committed against journalists became a new rule.”

Journalists suspected of collaborating with Israel are also hampered in their work by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, while a cybercrime law adopted by the Palestinian Authority limits freedom of expression and freedom of the press, RSF said in its report.

Palestine ranked 163rd for press freedom in the latest index, a drop of six places from 2024.

Of 180 jurisdictions, 112 saw declines in press freedom, with the average score globally falling to a record low of 55 points, according to the report.

The United States dropped two places to a record low of 57, with the watchdog accusing US President Donald Trump of overseeing a “troubling deterioration in press freedom”.

“President Donald Trump was elected to a second term after a campaign in which he denigrated the press on a daily basis and made explicit threats to weaponize the federal government against the media,” RSF said.

“His early moves in his second mandate to politicise the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), ban The Associated Press from the White House, or dismantle the US Agency for Global Media, for example, have jeopardised the country’s news outlets and indicate that he intends to follow through on his threats, setting up a potential crisis for American journalism.”

Israel dropped 11 places to 112th, with Reporters Without Borders pointing to growing restrictions on press freedom, media plurality and editorial independence since the start of the war in Gaza.

“Since 2021, only journalists working for Channel 14, a media outlet that covers Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a favourable light, have been granted interviews with the country’s leader, who accuses the Israeli press of conspiring against him,” the group said.

“In 2024, the Minister of Communication called on the government to boycott Haaretz, one of the few newspapers to criticise Netanyahu’s policies, including the massacre of civilians in Gaza – a topic that is largely suppressed.”

Eritrea was the lowest-ranked jurisdiction, just behind North Korea and China.

Norway was ranked first for press freedom, followed by Estonia, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Israel has ramped up attacks on Syria following a week of sectarian violence against the Druze community.

Israel’s military has launched air strikes near Syria’s presidential palace in Damascus after accusing the Syrian authorities of failing to protect the country’s Druze minority from sectarian violence.

The attack early on Friday was the second of its kind by Israel this week and is seen as sending a strong message to Syria’s transitional government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

“This is a clear message to the Syrian regime: We will not allow [Syrian] forces to deploy south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz shortly after the attack.

More than 100 people were killed this week during fighting between pro-government forces and Druze fighters in Syria.

The violence has been condemned as a “genocidal campaign” by Syria’s Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, who called for an immediate intervention by “international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes”.

On Thursday, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar urged the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria – especially the Druze – from the regime and its gangs of terror”.

Israel has previously called Syria’s transitional government a “terror group from Idlib that took Damascus by force” and has ramped up its support for the Druze minority this week.

The Druze minority are a 10th-century offshoot of a branch of Shia Islam, and live primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, and have been allies of Israel with many Druze serving in the Israeli military.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday called for “national unity” as “the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival”.

“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he wrote on X.

The sectarian violence poses one of the most serious challenges yet to the government of al-Sharaa, who led a coalition of rebel groups to overthrow Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Syria has been faced with sectarian violence since then.

The fighting this week follows a massacre in March of more than 1,700 civilians from the Alawite community by security forces and allied groups, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Alawites, who are traditionally based near the Mediterranean coast in western Syria, are the same ethnic group as the toppled al-Assad.

Syrian Druze leader condemns ‘genocidal campaign’ after dozens killed in clashes south of Damascus.

A leader of Syria’s Druze minority has condemned attacks against his community after dozens of people were killed in two days of sectarian clashes south of Damascus.

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday denounced the violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus earlier this week as a “genocidal campaign” against the Druze community in Syria.

Syria’s Ministry of Information said 11 members of the country’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks.

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor, said at least 101 people were killed in fighting between security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups.

The SOHR, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya’s former mayor, Husam Warwar.

In the southern province of Sweida, heartland of the Druze minority, it said 40 Druze fighters were killed, 35 in an “ambush” on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday.

The clashes broke out around midnight Monday after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man criticising Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The audio was attributed to a Druze scholar. But the scholar, Marwan Kiwan, said in a video posted on social media that he was not responsible for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Syrian government said a deal was reached between Druze dignitaries and official representatives after which security forces and pro-government fighters entered Sahnaya and Druze gunmen withdrew from the streets.

Videos on social media showed what appeared to be pro-government armed groups beating Druze men they had captured in Sahnaya and making offensive sectarian remarks.

“This collective killing is systematic, clear, visible, and documented,” read al-Hijri’s statement. “We no longer trust a group that calls itself a government, because the government doesn’t kill its own people through extremist gangs that are loyal to it, and after the massacre claims they are loose forces.”

The violence poses a serious challenge to the country’s new authorities, who toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. It comes after a wave of massacres in March in Syria’s Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawite, according to the SOHR.

Syrian authorities reject foreign intervention

Israeli officials have expressed support for the Druze, with Defence Minister Israel Katz warning his country would respond “with significant force” if Syria’s new authorities fail to protect the minority community.

In a later statement, Katz said, “Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force.”

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday reiterated Syria’s rejection of demands for international intervention, posting on X that “national unity is the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival”.

“Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division,” he added.

Most Druze spiritual leaders and factions have opted to air their grievances in closed communication with the new government, but concerns have heightened after a crackdown on al-Assad loyalists in Syria’s coastal province turned into a series of targeted revenge attacks against the Alawite minority group.

Videos widely circulated of houses burned down and bloodied bodies of Alawite on the streets. Tens of thousands of Alawite fled south to neighbouring Lebanon, and many are too scared to return.

The Druze have since become reluctant to lay down their arms, which they say they need for protection.