With little food or water, no electricity to charge their equipment, no internet, and the constant threat of Israeli army bombing, local journalists in Gaza are the only voices reporting the conflict from the Gaza Strip. The total siege ordered by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 has prevented access to both the international and Israeli press, leaving Gaza “on the verge of an information blackout.” ” stands. condemns Reporters Without Borders (RSF). But the bombs also silence informants. The Israeli army’s airstrikes on the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of more than 6,500 people, including twenty journalists, and destroyed or damaged about 50 media facilities in the Palestinian enclave, as well as thousands of affected infrastructure facilities.
Hossam B is a journalist from Gaza who does not want to reveal his real name to protect himself and respect the security instructions of the media company he works for. He is one of 50 reporters who, according to RSF, “had to hastily leave their homes in Gaza City” due to Israeli evacuation orders. He has been in southern Gaza for more than a week with his wife, who has health problems that worsen in stressful situations, and four children. “I have seen some wars in Gaza, but I have never cried as much as I have these days at work,” he says in a telephone conversation with this newspaper at the end of a new and tiring day at work. “It’s nothing like anything we’ve experienced before, no one is safe. It’s so unfair… As the journalist I am, I just want to tell the truth so that someone can stop this now and our families can be saved,” he adds exhausted.
More information
According to cases confirmed by RSF, at least ten journalists have died while covering the conflict and another nine have lost their lives as a result of Israeli attacks. This Wednesday, the Al Jazeera network reported that the family – wife, son and daughter – of one of its correspondents in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, was killed in a bomb attack. They had moved from northern Gaza to Nuseirat in the center after Israel warned residents to leave the area because of a threat of ground attack. Another Israeli airstrike in the south of the Palestinian enclave this Wednesday also killed the wife and son of journalist Mohammed Farra, who worked in Ramallah (West Bank).
⭕️ LIVE: Al Jazeera Arabic Gaza family members like Wael Dahdouh, including his wife, son and daughter, were killed in an Israeli attack. https://t.co/3qo1DkcpCr
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) brings the total number of deceased journalists to 24 (20 Palestinians, three Israelis and one Lebanese). “The number is comparable to the number of all journalists killed in Palestine in the last ten years,” condemns Edith Rodríguez Cachera, vice-president of RSF Spain. The last confirmed victim, Mohammad Baalouche, director of the Palestine Today television channel, was “murdered” in a selective attack on his home in Gaza, this international journalists’ organization denounces.
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“Exponential dangers”
Local Palestinian journalists “are the eyes of what’s happening on the ground, but they face exponential risks, including not only airstrikes but also a possible ground attack,” said Sherif Mansour, Palestinian CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator. Many of them “have lost their homes and families, they have had to flee to the South, where they continue to face great dangers when they work and where they have no access to computers or the Internet” to carry out their educational work , he continues.
Rodríguez Cachera emphasizes that she is also unable to receive help from abroad due to the blockade that Israel has maintained since 2007. “You cannot send them solar batteries to make up for the lack of electricity needed in conflict zones, nor can they be equipped or evacuated, as was the case with the Afghan journalists.” [tras el regreso de los talibanes, en agosto de 2021]”, Add.
A Palestinian journalist comforts his niece who was injured in an Israeli attack this Sunday at a hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza. Ali Mahmoud (AP)
It is precisely under these conditions that Hossam B has to do his job. “We work on our land and have two duties: one to our people and another to our family. I live it in that order. I go to work and do everything I can to convey the truth about what our people are suffering from. And I also spend part of the day reassuring and protecting my family,” he explains. “Because when you see dead children every day, entire families buried under the rubble or mothers of wounded families who end up dying, all you think about is your loved ones. “It only takes a second for your children to be dead children,” he adds. If Egypt were to eventually allow Gazans to leave the country, or this reporter could benefit from an evacuation, he is not sure he would take advantage of the opportunity. “That is a difficult question. I would do anything to protect my family, but I don’t know if I would leave or continue working. “Honestly, I do not know.”
Working as a journalist in any international conflict is complex, but according to Mansour, in the specific case of Gaza, they have noticed a decreasing presence of international journalists and media. “Many because of the risk involved, because in other Gaza wars the facilities of other media outlets have already been bombed,” such as Al Jazeera, the Qatari broadcaster that the Israeli government is now trying to ban with an exemption that allows it to do so. Closing media channels. Communications whose information “harms national security.” He continues: “It is very risky, especially after the murder of the prominent Palestinian-American journalist.” [por disparos de las fuerzas israelíes, según la ONU] Shireen Abu Akleh [en el norte de Cisjordania en mayor de 2022] a death for which no one was held responsible.”
A journalist holds a blood-stained bulletproof vest belonging to Palestinian journalist Mohammed Soboh, who was killed along with two other colleagues when an Israeli rocket hit a building where they were reporting in Gaza on October 1. EMPLOYEES (Portal)
Foreign journalists were in the Gaza Strip at other high points of this conflict, such as the Israeli offensive in Gaza in 2014, the bloodiest in recent years, in which more than 2,200 Palestinians died. In this case, the two steps that could give access to the international press: one in the north from Israel and one in the south from Egypt, are closed. No one has entered or left the Gaza Strip since October 7, except for the few humanitarian aid trucks that entered in recent days.
Other forms of oppression
In addition to direct attacks on the lives of reporters and photographers, repression against journalism also takes “other forms,” reminds RSF. According to the Palestinian Press Syndicate, fifty media channels were completely or partially destroyed in Gaza, including 24 “radio stations” that broadcast via radio or the Internet and are “one of the main sources of information about the local population.” explains Rodríguez Cachera. “Dozens of these media outlets were clustered in large towers in Gaza City, which were among the first to be bombed by Israel,” Mansour added. In addition, the bombings destroyed a makeshift tent housing teams from France Presse, Portal, BBC and Al Jazeera in southern Gaza without causing any injuries, RSF adds.
The pressure is also falling on those who practice journalism outside the Gaza Strip. Three BBC journalists were held at gunpoint by an Israeli police officer on the way to their hotel in Tel Aviv. And in Jerusalem, Ahmad Darwasha, a correspondent for Al Araby TV, was threatened and insulted by another Israeli police officer during a live broadcast. “I really hope you say good things,” he snapped when the reporter explained that he was telling him what “the spokesman” for the Israel Defense Forces had said. And he concluded, looking into the camera: “Murderer, murderer… Gaza should be turned into dust.”
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