BEIRUT (AP) – Minutes after journalists gathered outside Gaza Hospital to investigate the damage caused by the Israeli strike, Ibrahim Kannan pointed his camera at a ruined building as others climbed the outside stairs. Then I watched Kannan in horror – Live during broadcast – When the second strike is killed Friends and colleagues he knew very well.
“We live alongside death,” Kannan, a correspondent for Cairo-based Al-Gard TV, said in an interview.
“I can’t believe that five of our colleagues were hit in front of me on camera. I hold on to carry the message and make them look strong. No one may feel that kind of emotion. They are painful emotion.”
The death of Five journalists The strike at Nasser Hospital on August 25th will result in the casualties of nearly 200 news workers killed by Israeli forces while working to bring Gaza stories to the world. A total of 22 people killed in the attack remained dead and included Mariam Daga, 33, visual journalist Who is Freelance for Associated Press Other outlets.
Like the majority of Gaza’s population, most of its journalists have seen their homes being destroyed or damaged during the war, and have repeatedly evacuated after evacuation orders by Israeli forces. Many lamented the death of their families.
But journalists and supporters say the trial is far beyond that. They say that daily work is hidden in the perception that covering Gaza news makes it look specific in conflict and is subject to extraordinary risk.
For Gaza journalists, “it’s whether they’re going to die, live, or escape violence. It can’t be compared to any level (with other wartime journalism),” said Mohamed Salama, a former Egyptian journalist.
Not only does Israel call the strike a “tragic disaster,” but it also has a level of accusations.
After the August strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the killing a “tragic accident” after the military claimed that the military had not intentionally targeted journalists. After a preliminary examination, the military said it targeted what it believed the attack was Hamas surveillance cameras, saying that the six people killed were extremists but no evidence was provided.
Later last month, the Associated Press and Reuters lost photographers and freelancers in hospital attacks – Israel requested to provide a full account What happened was “take every step to protect those who continue to cover this conflict.” The press issued a statement on the anniversary of the strike month.
Israeli officials have previously accused Gaza journalists of current or former extremists. They include Anas al-Sharifa famous correspondent for Al Jazeera, killed in a strike in early August in a media tent outside another Gaza hospital. Four other journalists were also killed in the attack.
The Israeli military cites documents that are allegedly found in Gaza and other intelligence. I’ve been claiming it for a long time Al-Sharif was a member of Hamas. He was killed after a press conference said Israel’s “Smear Campaign” had stepped up.
There is a long, sometimes tragic history of journalists who risk personal safety to cover conflicts. But the risks, trials and casualties of doing so are now higher than they’ve ever been in Gaza, experts say.
Since The war has been ignited In Hamas’ attacks on Israel almost two years ago, 195 Palestinian media workers were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, according to a committee protecting journalists.
Tolls recently prompted the costs of Brown University’s war project, labeling Gaza as a “news cemetery.” The deaths of journalists in Gaza now surpass the total number killed during the US Civil War, World War I and II, the Vietnam and South Korea war, the war in Yugoslavia that ended in 2001 and the Afghanistan war.
Last year, another investigation into Gaza news workers by an Arab reporter for investigative journalism said nine in 10 people had been destroyed in the war. Approximately one in five people were injured and almost the same number said they had lost their family. That was before Israel resumed combat in March after a brief ceasefire.
One Gaza journalist Noor Swirki told the Associated Press in an interview. Swirki, who is also a journalist, and her husband arranged for her son and daughter to leave Gaza in 2024 to stay with their Egyptian family.
Swirki, who works for Saudi Arabia-based Asharq News and a friend of Daga, said he “preferred their safety over motherhood.”
“Death is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, at a moment (in Gaza),” Swirki said. She skims photos and videos stored on her phone, and reminds her of that reality every time she encounters the faces and voices of many colleagues and friends killed in the war.
“We are fearful and terrified, working under the toughest conditions,” she said. “But we still stand up and work.”
Journalists are under pressure from violence and hunger
Kannan, who saw his colleague murdered during the August strike, said Israel’s refusal to allow foreign reporters to enter Gaza is putting a lot of pressure on local journalists.
He said he had worked without a break since the start of the war and had grabbed sleep during live broadcasts. His family was difficult to avoid 7. Now he and other journalists are struggling to find food. In a recent social media post, he and fellow journalists gathered to cook a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of pasta worth $60.
But when he went to the camera, Kannan said he was trying to look strong, hoping to reassure the viewers. In fact, he and the other journalists are exhausted and scared.
Kannan says his fear has increased since airing a video of his colleague being killed in a hospital attack because it can attract the attention of Israeli forces. “The situation is more frightening than the human brain could imagine,” he said. “The fear of us living and being targeted is worse than explained.”
Another Gaza journalist, Mohammed Sab, said that an Israeli strike that killed an Al Jazeera reporter in the beginning of August left him with a rap shotgun on his back and a leg injury. However, the hospital was overwhelmed by such important cases and was unable to receive treatment.
Subeh, who reported on the report from Saudi news channel Al Ekbarya, said:
Interviewing more than 20 Gaza journalists alongside her colleagues for academic research, Salama said that unlike foreign correspondents covering the war, Palestinian reporters have experienced decades of conflict firsthand. The experience has put them in their own unique ability to tell Gaza stories, he said — but they cannot leave.
“You don’t have the luxury of destroying your soul from what’s going on on earth,” said Salama, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland.
Subeh, who works for a Saudi news channel, said he had repeatedly thought about resigning and trying to escape. But despite the extreme difficulties and dangers, he cannot do it.
“My presence here is important and I feel that the voice of Gaza should be sent from my own inhabitants into the world,” he said. “Journalism is not just my mission, it’s my mission.”
___
Mrou reported from Beirut and Geller in New York.
