The father of Marine Vlahovic, a French journalist who was found dead on the roof of her Marseille apartment in November 2024, has rejected mounting social media speculation that his daughter was murdered by Israel.
Jean-Yves Vlahovic, the father of Marine Vlahovic — a journalist celebrated for her documentary podcasts and work as a correspondent reporting from Ramallah in the West Bank — told Euronews in an exclusive interview that he wanted to “take the time to put an end” to rumours he said were “based on nothing.”
In recent weeks, a series of social media posts – some of which have amassed more than 3 million views on X – have accused Israel of orchestrating Vlahovic’s death. Certain users’ claims have gone further, pointing the finger at Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad.
Many of these social media posts have shared the same sentence, stating “French journalist Marine Vlahovic was found dead in her home in Marseille while working on a documentary covering Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Other accounts have peddled antisemitic accusations, stating on X “Jewish censorship appears to have taken another journalist’s life!”
These accounts have suggested that the fact that Vlahovic was working on a documentary about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a purported motive.
Yet, Jean-Yves Vlahovic and his family stressed that the post-mortem examination showed “no evidence of traumatic injuries suggestive of violence contributing to the death.”
They also stressed that CCTV footage from the building’s staircase and the street had allowed Marseille’s judicial police and the public prosecutor’s office to conclude that no unauthorised person had entered or left the building prior to Marine Vlahovic’s death.
Repeated false allegations
This is not the first time that rumours about Vlahovic’s death have gone viral, with a similar narrative gaining traction in 2025.
This time round, many posts failed to mention that Vlahovic died more than a year ago, instead presenting her death as recent. Other social media accounts have questioned why details of her autopsy were never made public.
In reality, the Marseille Public Prosecutor’s Office declared in early December 2024 that a post-mortem examination had “ruled out the involvement of a third party”, but that “toxicology tests” were underway.
Marine Vlahovic’s family confirmed to Euronews that it had consulted the autopsy report, which confirmed that she was not murdered, stating that “no traumatic injuries consistent with violence that may have contributed to the death were found.” The family did not wish to disclose any further details of the report.
Frustration at Gaza war coverage
This renewed wave of accusations, casting blame on Israel for Vlahovic’s murder comes as its government faces mounting public scrutiny over its military campaign with the US against Iran.
Jean-Yves Vlahovic specified that reports that Marine was working on a documentary titled “in the Gaza Strip” at the time of her death were imprecise.
“My daughter did not make a documentary in Gaza. She travelled to Cairo with a colleague because she had hoped to reach Gaza in late 2023, but there was no way to access it. In Egypt, she met people from Gaza who had fled the Israeli bombardments — that is what her documentary focused on”, he said.
Despite there being no evidence that Vlahovic’s death was connected to Israel, the journalist had expressed frustration with the way French media reported on the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
In 2024, Télérama reported that Vlahovic had chosen not to renew her press card out of frustration with media coverage of the war in Gaza. Her father clarified her decision to Euronews, detailing that his daughter had been deeply affected by what she saw as a lack of trust in Palestinian reporters based in Gaza.
Palestinian journalists were among the few sources of on-the-ground reporting during the Israel-Hamas war, after Israel banned foreign reporters from entering the Strip following Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel 7 October 2023.
“She had lived in the West Bank for several years and had many friends there, including journalists in Gaza. She was appalled by what she saw as a blackout from French media. She told me that some outlets did not trust Gazan journalists — and that shocked her”, he told Euronews.
Marine Vlahovic herself spoke of this disillusionment in the epilogue of her podcast Carnets de Correspondante, published by Arte Radio in late June 2024, reflecting on her time in Egypt.
In the final episode, Gaza Calling, she said: “I eventually returned to France, but I remain connected to Gaza. I am stepping back from journalism — I am disheartened by the media coverage. For the first time in 15 years, I will not apply to renew my press card.”
