Eyes of Gaza journalist reflects on her job, ‘mission’

The Palestinian journalist, known for covering the massacre inflicted on his country by Israel, revealed the deep sense of responsibility that drives him to do his job.

Plestia Alaqad’s first assignment after studying new media at university was to cover what an independent United Nations panel found to be genocide; He survived 45 days in Gaza before his family left for Australia.

The 22-year-old, whose diaries from his time in Palestine formed his first novel, The Eyes of Gaza, spoke at a Colorful Democracy event in western Sydney on Monday night.

Ms. Alaqad said her journalism was not inspired by passion, but rather from a mission to show the world what Israeli bombardment is really like.

“No one teaches you how to report a genocide or how to recover from a genocide; it’s just something you have to put yourself out there on the field and trust everything you’ve learned,” he said.

“Palestinian journalists constantly cover Israeli deliberate starvation, but they also starve to death while reporting it.

“They report on families who have lost loved ones, but they don’t even have time to mourn their lost loved ones.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists found that 197 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israel since the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023.

Speaking days after the US-led ceasefire agreement was announced, Ms Alqad spoke of “false hopes” about lulls in fighting after previous attempts failed.

“It’s like a pause, ‘Let’s take a break from killing Palestinians for a few days and then we’ll continue,'” he said.

“The ceasefire is like a window of hope, even if it’s just five seconds or five minutes… We can sleep tonight knowing that we will all wake up tomorrow, knowing that our cousins ​​who are still in Gaza will wake up without missing a hand or a leg.”

The young Palestinian has won numerous awards for his journalism, including the Only Young World Journalist of the Year, the Lyra McKee Courage Award, and the Human Rights Defender award.

Israel launched a two-year military offensive on Gaza, killing more than 67,000 people, including nearly 20,000 children, according to the United Nations.

This came after the militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, reportedly killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.