NEW YORK, November 20. /TASS/. The number of journalists killed since October 7 during the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has reached 48, the highest total over any monthly period in the last 30 years, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported.

"As of November 19, at least 48 journalists and media workers were among the more than 13,000 killed since the war began on October 7," the organization said in a statement. The CPJ declared this monthly period to be the "deadliest month for journalists" since 1992, when the committee began collecting data.

The Committee to Protect Journalists was founded in 1981. It is a non-governmental organization headquartered in New York that protects the rights of journalists around the world.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and carried out air strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.