India, Feb. 24 -- In recent days, as Israeli authorities moved to designate five Palestinian news organizations as "terrorist" entities, the closures unfolded quietly: office doors sealed, equipment threatened with confiscation, journalists warned that continued reporting could carry criminal consequences. For many Palestinians, the decision did not feel like an isolated security measure but part of a longer trajectory, one that critics describe as a systematic effort to silence documentation of what they call a genocide unfolding in Gaza.

The designation, signed by Israel's defense minister, targeted outlets including Al Asima News and Quds Plus, accusing them of links to armed groups without publicly presenting detailed evidence. Medi...