Read the heartbreaking last words of Palestinian journalists about Gaza

With the death toll in the Gaza Strip rising by thousands every day, reporters covering the atrocities are particularly vulnerable. Journalists – displaced and forced to flee their homes, often without equipment or protective equipment – ​​risk exposure to Israeli airstrikes and other ground forces.

‘We cover the war on Gaza because this is our journalistic duty. It has been entrusted to us,” 31-year-old Mariam Abu Dagga, a photojournalist for the Independent Arabic, said CNN. “We have challenged the Israeli occupation. We challenged the difficult circumstances and the reality of this war, a genocidal war.”

With foreign journalists locked out of Gaza, Palestinian journalists are tasked with not only documenting the events around them, but also experiencing them. According to the Palestinian Authority, at least 126 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in the past year Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) – the deadliest period for journalists since 1992, when the bureau began collecting.

Calls to protect journalists are increasing worldwide, with several petitions accusing Israel of violations of international law and deliberately targeting journalists for their reporting and outspoken nature.

“Any Palestinian reporter who talks about Israel is a martyr by default,” said Rania Hamdalla, a talk show host and reporter for Palestine TV. New lines magazine in January.

Surviving Gazan journalists told CNN they are haunted by the deaths and last words of their colleagues. In a viral post this week: said Hossam Shabat: “If our voice is killed, be our voice.” Many feared the message was being shared as his last words. While Shabat is still alive, his sentiments highlight how many Palestinians are turning to social media for what may be their last public statement.

In her last social media post before her death, Palestinian journalist and podcaster Ayat Khadoura said: “This could be my last message to the world.”

Her caption continued: “We had big dreams but our dream now is to be killed in one piece so they know who we are.” Her post included videos showing conditions in northern Gaza.

Khadoura was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit her home on November 20, 2023. According to her sister Yasmin, she was killed along with some of her other siblings. Relatives were unable to bury her body because she had been blown to pieces.

“Ayat aspired to become a great journalist, to further his studies, to obtain film equipment. So many things,” her sister said The Washington Post.

But in the last days before her death, Yasmin said: ‘She said to me: ‘I don’t want anything anymore. I just want the war to end. ”

Many other journalists who died during the conflict felt the same way.

“Surviving every day is exhausting,” Dua Jabbour, a reporter whose work is featured in Eyes Media Network, wrote on Facebook before she was killed by an Israeli airstrike on her home in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on December 9 2023. According to police, her husband and children were also murdered Syndicate of Palestinian Journalists.

Ola Atallah, a Palestinian female freelance journalist, was killed the same day by an Israeli airstrike while taking refuge with her family in a house in northern Gaza. Arab 21, Anadolu news agency and the Syndicate of Palestinian Journalists. She was murdered along with nine members of her family. In the last article she published, she described the destruction and damage to her neighborhood in Gaza. Her final words shared on X reflected similar sentiments. “How many more nights of terror and death does Gaza have to count?” she said December 8.

Palestinian journalist Belal Jadallah was murdered on November 19. Often referred to as the “father figure” of journalism in Gaza, Jadallah founded Press House, a media center that offered training and supplied vests and helmets.

In his last Facebook post before his death, Jadallah paid tribute to a murdered colleague at Press House: “Words cannot express my sadness at this painful loss,” he said. said on November 6. According to friends of Jadallah, he planned to evacuate south but was killed in his car by Israeli shelling in Gaza City. His death is still under investigation as a possible targeted killing.

Filmmaker and co-founder of Ain Media, Roshdi Sarraj, was murdered on October 22, 2023. Sarraj consistently called for the safety of Gaza journalists, even until the day he died.

According to the Turks TRT worldSarraj was in Saudi Arabia on October 7 and decided to return to Gaza to document the unfolding war.

“We need international protection,” he said in a voice message to The Post last October before his death.

According to the official Palestinian Authority news agency, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. Wafa, Sky NewsAnd Al Jazeera. His wife and toddler daughter were injured in the same strike at his parents’ home.

As if he knew his death would come just days before his passing, he wrote on X :“We think we are experiencing the last moments of our lives..”

In another post on Facebook on October 13he suggested that the only time Palestinians would leave Gaza is to go to “heaven.” Are last post on October 17 criticized Israel for the number of journalists killed in the bombing.

‘We are all Roshdi now’ said Ain Mediaconfirming his death days later. His Facebook page has become a digital memorial where mourners can pay tribute to him.

Despite everything they have endured, Gazan journalists continue to persevere and feel obliged to stay because they understand the importance of exposing what is happening in the Gaza Strip.

Photographing the ruins of buildings in Gaza for Anadolu Agency, photojournalist Montaser al-Sawaf was killed on December 1, 2023 – days after he survived a bombing that killed his parents and other family members. Despite his injuries, he reported tirelessly and never took a break, his colleagues said the Washington Post. “Yesterday there was a street here, houses, children and dreams,” he wrote with one of his last photos.

“He only gave up at the last minute,” recalls Turgut Alp Boyraz, the agency’s regional news manager. “He said, ‘Someone has to do the work.’”

Sawaf was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza City. Are latest Instagram post included a selfie showing his seriously injured eye, with the caption “I haven’t found a doctor to treat me yet, because I’m in Gaza City there is no hospital to treat it, not even doctors. Despite everything, we continue to provide coverage.”

Freelance videographer Mosab Ashour was in his final year of college before the war started. In one of his last videos, captioned “Words from Gaza,” he asked, “Who’s listening?” The 22-year-old hoped to make a name for himself in the industry and leave Palestine just days before he was killed in an Israeli attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp, his uncle said.

“I’m following my dream,” Ashour had posted in his last social media post a few weeks earlier.

The heartbreaking reality is that media officials in Gaza know this may be their last report on the conflict.

‘Today I’ll tell you the news. Tomorrow I might be the news,” Tareq Hajjaj, Gaza correspondent for Mondoweiss, wrote in an Op-Ed. Hajjaj continues to report on conditions in Gaza and recently wrote about the mass displacement and arrests taking place in northern Gaza.