Gaza journalists standing with resilience amid killings and destruction

Palestinian journalists in Gaza face constant danger, loss, and struggle to report the truth amidst warzone chaos.

What does a Palestinian journalist’s day look like, apart from the daily challenges of a news-gathering process? Under constant bombardment and airstrikes, targeted drone attacks, survival is the greatest challenge. Fighting with starvation, homelessness, dehydration, losing family members one after another, lack of basic necessities, medicines, and disrupted internet access and electricity- a Gaza journalist has to struggle with all these in a warzone before filing their storis.

Salman al-Bashir, a journalist with the Palestinian Authority’s TV channel, threw his protective gear while reporting on his colleague Mohammed Abu Hatab’s death. Bashir was choked with tears and said in anguish, “We are victims on live TV.”  

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of December 17, 2024, 141 journalists and media workers have been killed in Palestine’s Gaza and West Bank since the escalation of conflict between Israel and Palestine started after October 7, 2023. 

Many of the journalists are as young as 18 years old and started reporting for many agencies after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that led to the war. As Israel barred the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza, these local journalists played a huge role in getting the truth out of the Gaza Strip. Gaza journalists have continued to report from the warzone even after being homeless and after losing their family members. 

Reuters reported in October 2023 that after requests made to the Israel Army by the news agency and Agence France Presse not to target their journalist, the Israel Army replied that it can’t guarantee the safety of their journalists as the IDF “is targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza.” 

An investigation done by Forbidden Stories, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Le Monde, and AFP as part of the Gaza Project revealed that the Israeli Army deliberately targeted and bombed Gaza Strip’s Al-Ghefari tower, where many media houses had their offices, including AFP, on November 2. The AFP is one of the foreign news agencies that has an office in the Gaza Strip. This bombing happened even after AFP had communicated with IDF about their location.

Al Hassan Hamad, who started reporting after the war began, was just 18 years old when he was killed on October 6, 2024. He was shot dead by the Israeli army in Gaza’s Jabalia camp while reporting. He worked with media outlets such as Al Jazeera and Media Town TV. After an Israeli missile hit him, his body was shredded into pieces. “All that remains of Al Hassan is some of his hair and body parts weighing no more than five kilograms,” Abdul Rahim Hamad, Hassan’s father, told CPJ. His father shared with CPJ how his son was threatened multiple times from Israeli phone numbers. His colleague at Media Town told CJP that they always have expected a bright future for him as a journalist.