"I hope you come out safe from this war. Take care; I miss you. I swear, I miss you, and I pray for you every day. May Allah be pleased with you." These were the last words Moamen Al Sharafi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, heard from his family. He never had the chance to say goodbye or conduct proper burial rituals. His entire family was killed when Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza in December 2023, two months after the war broke out.
Instead, Moamen put on his press vest, fought back the tears, and looked straight into the camera because duty calls!
"We are forbidden from the last farewell look at our parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. We are forbidden from burying them with dignity. We have been deprived of the simplest things that any person is entitled to," said Moamen and closed his eyes following a deep sigh after he was done reporting.
Moamen is not the first to go through the harrowing experience of learning about the death of your loved ones while on air and having to report it. It has been the normal for Palestinian journalists since the beginning of Israel's recent "genocidal" war on Gaza.
"It's a difficult moment in the life of a Palestinian journalist, when they go to cover an incident for the news and find out that the news is their own family," said Wael Dahdouh, the bureau chief of Al Jazeera, who lost his family including his one and a half-year-old grandson in an Israeli airstrike that hit their house, just days into beginning of the war.
Wael stood facing away from the camera for once, leaning against the wall to hide his tears as he bid farewell to his family at the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital.
When he turned to face the camera wherein he was going to be interviewed by a colleague, it had to be done the same way like many other interviews before.
So Wael composed himself and began to speak but his voice gradually lost assurance while talking about the number of family members he had lost. Then Wael broke down. Tears filled his eyes as he mentioned his seven-year-old daughter Sham, the second-youngest of the victims.
"It's a difficult moment in the life of a Palestinian journalist, when they go to cover an incident for the news and find out that the news is their own family."
Wael Dahdouh
While the disconsolate stories reported by journalists from war zones paint a bleak picture, Gaza adds even more despairing accounts of journalists losing their own lives while on duty, caught in the blasts of shells or rockets that target them.
With another Palestinian journalist being killed on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, in an Israeli airstrike, the death toll of press reporters at the war zone has soared to 190 since October 7, 2023.
The latest victim, Alaa Barhoum, an editor in several media outlets, was killed when Israeli air strikes hit the Al-Tabi’in School in Gaza City as reported by Gaza's government media office.
The media office has condemned these killings, calling on the international community to intervene and describing the attacks on journalists as systematic.
It also urged international organisations and governments to "hold Israel accountable by taking legal action in international courts and to exert pressure on Israel to halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza."
Reporting on war is undoubtedly terrifying as your life is potentially on the line. Take for instance the case of Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui. Siddiqui, (38) who was chief photographer for the Reuters news agency in India had died while he was on assignment at Spin Boldak in Afganisthan during the Taliban insurgency.
"If we don't go, who will?" he asked his boss, the very phrase that must have went through the minds of the 190 Palestinian journalists who had been killed for simply doing their job.
According to multiple investigations conducted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Palestinian and Lebanese journalists covering the Gaza war have been systematically targeted by Israel. Israel has also allegedly targeted the families of some Palestinian journalists, according to CPJ.
"In spite of extensive evidence of a war crime, a year on from the attack, Israel has faced zero accountability for the targeting of journalists. With over two decades of targeted attacks on journalists without any consequences, the Israeli military has been granted license to continue this deadly pattern," a CPJ report on the killing of journalist Issam Abdallah noted.
The reported noted that the press vest which is expected to be a symbol of protection has become a way (as seen in the case of Palestinian and Lebanese journalists) to identify and target them.
As of November 26, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 137 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
“Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze,” stated CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna.
During a conversation with noted investigative journalist and A Feast of Vultures fame Josy Joseph, he mentioned that what we're witnessing in Palestine is an "unprecedented scale of targeted killing of journalists" which hasn't been seen before.
Josy went on to say how most war or political correspondents are more vulnerable in conflict zones and battlefields as they are not trained to protect themselves. They cannot fight back nor are they supposed to. "Another issue is that most journalists are always trying to be where the action takes place which means they are close to danger without any protective gear," he shared, adding that there is always a risk of being injured. But in the case of reporters in Palestine, they are targeted by the State.
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth.”
Carlos Martinez de la Serna
Another bigger threat apart from death is the delegitimization that Palestinian journalists are subjected to.
Last month on 23 October, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X, stating that six journalists working with Al Jazeera, namely Anas al-Sharif, Talal Aruki, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ismail Farid and Ashraf Saraj are accomplices of "terrorism." The Israeli military claimed that they had 'documents' as proof on the military affiliation of these journalists to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, adding that these reporters were "spearheading the propaganda for Hamas at Al Jazeera."
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera strongly denied such claims, calling it "fabricated accusations" aimed at silencing the few remaining journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's actions are reflective of a global phenomenon where people in power withhold information from the general public, shared Josy. "Not wanting the world to know the truth, not wanting independent journalists to question those in power," said Josy, adding that fictional narratives and propaganda are generated to discredit these journalists.
He further stressed that the blood bath occurring in Israel today is in many ways symbolic of a larger attack on the truth/truth-telling done by independent media.
"Not wanting the world to know the truth, not wanting independent journalists to question those in power, the State generates fictional narratives and propaganda to discredit journalists."
Josy Joseph
Touching further upon the delegitimisation of news coming from the ground, acclaimed war correspondent Dr Waiel Awwad shared that when one wants to suppress the truth, they choose to kill the person who covered the truth, thus making many of the war correspondents an easy target.
"There is a clear indication that they (Israel) do not want you to report the truth and the price is being paid by Palestinian journalists," said Awwad citing examples of deceptive news reports that accused Hamas of using human shields. But in reality, it was actually the Israeli forces who used Palestinian civilians, especially children as a human shield.
"The Western media is just mainly concerned when their people are killed or subjected to any kind of death threats/blackmails. However, when any Arab, Palestinian, Latino or even Mexican dies, there is either less or no coverage of the incident, unfortunately. Even if we fall under the minority category, we must always ensure to stick to the truth and spread the right information/narrative," he stressed.
Palestinian journalists continue to put their life on the line so that the world can see what is happening to their people. Deprived of all the privilege and protection granted by international laws to journalists, Palestinian reporters are striving to counter the plethora of false narratives that is being pushed by most of the mainstream media. But what they are also doing through the harrowing stories and graphic images of destruction is appealing to the international community to stand with their people and stop this war.
"I'm sorry for not being able to do more...I wish I never lost these people in my life," said Motaz Azaiza, the 25-year old Palestinian photo journalist who became a symbol of fearless journalism and was named in the Time Magazine's '100 most influential people of 2024' list.
"I'm sorry the world let you down and they did nothing on the ground to protect you...I'm sorry I could not do anything as you suffered in your tents, in heat and in rain," Azaiza said in a message to his people on Instagram.
“What is happening in Gaza is not content for you... We are not telling you what is happening ... for your likes or views or shares. No, we are waiting for you to act. We need to stop this war,” Azaiza had said earlier.
On account of International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we remember Alaa Barhoum, Wael Ibrahim Abu Quffa, and the remaining 188 martyred journalists who died on duty for trying to tell us the truth.
