A group of Nepali journalists held a candlelight vigil at Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur on Monday commemorating journalists who have been killed in Palestine and expressing solidarity with journalists working in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

The Nepali journalists denounced the Israeli government’s killings of more than 70 Palestinian journalists from the Gaza Strip over two- and-half months of the Israel-Hamas war.

“More journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7 than all the journalists killed worldwide in the previous 12 months,” read the statement signed by 26 Nepali journalists. “Many of the murdered Gaza journalists also lost their family members to targeted bombardments, and those fortunate to survive have lost close relatives.”

Mediapersons in Gaza struggle to communicate with each other and to get news out amid the destroyed communications infrastructure, electricity outages and internet shutdowns, the statement said.

“Even when they manage to get through to the outside world, the propaganda machinery of the Israeli government and its supporters try to sow doubt about the coverage from the ground.”