Journalists work in dire conditions to tell Gaza’s story, knowing that could make them targets
BEYRUT (AP) – A few minutes after journalists gathered outside a Gaza hospital to investigate the damage of an Israeli strike, Ibrahim Qannan pointed to the battered building as the others climbed the outer stairs. Then Qannan watched in fear – while broadcasting live – A second strike was killed Friends and colleagues knew very well.
“We live side by side with death,” he said in an interview with Cairo-based Al-Ghad TV reporter.
“I still cannot believe that our five colleagues have been hit in front of me and I try to endure and look strong to carry the message. Nobody may feel such emotions. Painful emotions.”
Deaths Five journalists In the strikes on Nasser Hospital on August 25, he adds the wages of about 200 news workers killed by Israeli forces while working to give birth to the story of Gaza. Those who were killed in the attack, including a total of 22 people, including, including Mariam Dagga, 33, Visual Journalist DSÖ Free for Associated Press and other outlets.
Like the vast majority of the population of Gaza, most journalists saw that their homes were destroyed or damaged during the war, and the Israeli army was repeatedly displaced by the evacuation orders. Many mourned the deaths of family members.
However, journalists and defenders say that they went far beyond the essays. Every working day is shaded with awareness covering the news in Gaza, can be seen alone in conflict and puts them at an extraordinary risk.
For journalists in Gaza, Mohamed Salama, who is currently academician in Egypt, is investigating the life of the news workers in the lane.
Israel is calling strikes ‘a tragic mishap’ but also their accusations are at the levels
After August strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that the army did not deliberately target journalists and call the murders as “a tragic mishap”. After a preliminary examination, the army said that the attack was aimed at what the attack was a Hamas surveillance camera and that six people killed were militants, but did not offer any evidence.
At the end of last month, a cameraman and free worker lost in the hospital attack AP and Reuters He asked Israel to give a full account “Take every step to protect those who continue to cover this conflict.” News organizations published their words about the one -month anniversary of strikes.
Israeli officials previously accused some journalists in Gaza of being present or former militants. They include Anas al-SharifA reporter for Al Jazeera, who was killed in a strike in a media tent outside another Gaza Hospital. Four other journalists were killed in the attack.
The Israeli Army referring to the documents in Gaza and other intelligence, He had claimed this for a long time He was a member of Al-Sharif Hamas. He was killed after saying that the press defenders were Israel’s “Smear campaign”.
Journalists who risk personal security to meet conflicts have a long, sometimes tragic history. However, experts say that the risks, trials and wages that are not higher than in Gaza are never higher.
Because War fired According to the Conservation Committee of Journalists, 195 Palestinian media workers were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza with an attack on Israel about two years ago.
The fee recently encouraged Brown University’s war costs project to label Gaza as a “news cemetery .. Journalist deaths in Gaza, US Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam and Korean wars, the war that ended in 2001 in Yugoslavia, and the United Number killed during the War of Afghanistan.
In a separate research of Gaza news workers by researchers of Arab journalists last year, nine of 10 people were destroyed in the war. He said that one out of every five people were injured and approximately the same number lost family members. This was before Israel continued to fight in March after a short ceasefire.
Nour Swirki, a Gaza journalist, said in an interview to the EP seven times since his house was destroyed at the beginning of the war. Swirki, a journalist at the same time, organized his sons and daughters to leave Gaza in 2024 and stay with his family in Egypt while the couple continued.
Swirki, who worked for Saudi -based Asharq News and Dagga’s friend, said, ım I chose my security for my motherhood. ”
Swirki said, “Death is there (in Gaza) at any moment, every second and everywhere, Sw It reminds us of this reality when he escaped from the photos and videos stored on his phone and the faces and sounds of many colleagues and friends killed in the war.
“We are scared and we are terrified and we work under the hardest conditions,” he said, “But we still get up and work.”
Violence against journalists is under pressure by hunger
Seeing that his colleagues were killed in the August strike, Qannan said that Israel refused to allow foreign reporters to enter Gaza, and that he has made a tremendous pressure on local journalists who saw their work for most Palestinians.
Since the beginning of the war, he caught sleeping without a break and sleep between live broadcasts. His family was displaced seven times. Now he and other journalists are fighting to find food. In a recent social media mission, O and other journalists came together to cook a kilogram (2.2 pound) pasta, which was equivalent to $ 60.
Nevertheless, when he went to the camera, Qannan said he made an effort to look strong in the hope of giving the audience assurance. In fact, he and other journalists are exhausted and afraid.
Qannan says his fears have increased since his colleagues have been killed in the hospital attack, because he may attract the attention of the Israeli army. “The situation is more terrible than the human brain can imagine,” he said. “The fear of our experiences and the fear of targeting is worse than described.”
Another Gaza journalist Mohammed Subeh said that the Israeli strike, who killed the Al Jazeera correspondent in early August, left him on his back and left him with a injury on his feet. However, hospitals were so overwhelmed by critical cases that they could not be treated.
SUBEH, who reported for the Saudi Arab news channel al-Eekhbariya, said, “A journalist in Gaza lives between following the news and at the same time to cover the war between the security and the security of his family,” he said.
Salama, who interviewed with more than 20 Gaza journalists for his academic research with his colleagues, said that Palestinian journalists have experienced decades of conflict for decades. This experience can uniquely tell them the story of Gaza, he said – but they can never get away from it.
Salam, a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, said, ız You don’t have the luxury to remove your soul from the ones on the ground, ”he said.
SUBEH, who works for the Saudi news channel, said he was thinking of quitting and trying to escape again. However, despite extreme difficulties and dangers, he cannot bring himself to do so.
Orum I feel that my existence here is important and that the voice of Gaza should be sent to the world from its inhabitants, ”he said. “Journalism is not just a job for me, it’s a task.”
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Mroue reports from Beirut and Geller from New York.
