Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 59 other organizations are calling on the EU to suspend its cooperation agreements with the Israeli regime, Barron's reported on Monday.

They have urged the EU to adopt targeted sanctions against those responsible, the groups said in a joint statement.

In response to the unprecedented number of journalists killed and other repeated press freedom violations by the Israeli authorities since the start of the war in Gaza. 

"More than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since 7 October. At least 30 of them were killed in the course of their work, three Lebanese journalists and an Israeli journalist have also been (killed) during the same period," the statement reads.

The targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, whether committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime, it said.

Among the signatories were the Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch.

The call came ahead of a meeting by EU foreign ministers in Brussels on August 29.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has announced that over 40,220 Palestinians have been martyred in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.