Foreign media could not enter Gaza, so journalists who lived there recorded it for the world
Their cameras dusty, their blue vests worn from extreme use and emotions still running high, Palestinian journalists in Gaza are still at work after rejoicing in surviving the war following a ceasefire announced a week ago.
As members of the foreign media were not allowed in the Gaza Strip, the responsibility of reporting fell on the shoulders of local journalists who recorded footage of their neighbors and sometimes their own families’ last moments – all to ensure that the international media could bring the world inside Destruction 2. The enclave’s 2 million civilians held out. About 90 percent of the population has been displaced since Israel launched its military campaign 15 months ago, many moving more than once.
Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to its Health Ministry, in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. Hamas was responsible for killing 1,200 people and leading to the capture of more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli talties.
Three Palestinian journalists spoke with CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife about what it was like to cover the war while living with its effects in their own homes.
Talat Abu Musabah
“I can’t believe I managed to survive this genocidal war,” said Talat Abu Musabah, who works with Press TV.
“From the very beginning of this war, Israeli forces have targeted Palestinian journalists.”
In print release Earlier this month, the International Federation of Journalists announced that “at least 152 journalists” had been killed in Gaza during the war. The release condemned the killings, calling for an “immediate investigation” into their deaths. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the death toll at 167 journalists, noting that it is investigating reports of many other deaths.
On the day CBC spoke to Abu Musabah, he said he was “amazed” he was still alive.
The 37-year-old picked up a job with Iran’s Press TV news agency, covering airstrikes, ground attacks and death in the Gaza Strip. He said he wanted to report on the conflict to “raise the voices of the Palestinian people.” The journalist said long before October 7, 2023 that this line of work had always been his calling.
Talat Abu Musabah says he and his colleagues felt elated by the news of the ceasefire, but is still processing the staggering loss of civilian life he reported.
“For me, journalism is one of the most important aspects of our daily life as a Palestinian people,” he said. “We have this relentless battle with the Israeli occupation forces in terms of combat.”
Looking back on the days of the war, he describes them as “extremely horrible”.
As families return to Rafah, the grim task of searching through the rubble in the hope of finding the remains of their loved ones to bury awaits many. Although the Gaza Ministry of Health estimates that roughly 47,000 civilians have died in the war, a study published in the Lancet on January 9 suggests the actual tally is much higher.
But “it was an important day when the ceasefire agreement was announced,” Abu Musabah said. “We were very delighted when this truce came into effect.”
Sami Abu Salem
A viral video taken on social media of a group of Palestinian journalists gathered near the European Hospital in Khan Younis to celebrate the moment the ceasefire came into effect on Sunday. They sang and cheered, sharing in the moment of survival and remembering colleagues who couldn’t be there to celebrate with them.
Sami Abu Salem, a writer for WAFA, described the conflicting feelings he and his colleagues now carry with them in post-war Gaza.
“I am happy and satisfied because we are alive,” he said in an interview. “But at the same time, I’m so upset because we’ve lost over 200 of our colleagues.”
The 53-year-old writer was cautiously optimistic as he explained that the ceasefire, still in its early days, was “fragile” and could break down at any time.
The father also described his own struggle over the past 15 months – even as he covered the devastation of the war and its effects on the people around him, he also went home to a tent and tried to find food, water and supplies for his family. But he says it’s his inability to balance everything that often leaves him defeated during confrontations.
Sami Abu Salem says that journalism was his way of giving Palestinians a voice during the war. With his own home destroyed, he and his family are looking for a place to live.
“During the war, as a journalist, I felt that I could not do my job well. Whether it was to take care of my children, to look for a place to stay or to look for food and water for my children,” he said. “Or we cover the news and I take photos.”
Still, he hoped to become a famous journalist and felt it was his patriotic duty to ensure that the stories of the war were told to the world.
Visibly tired, he laughs as he hears his dreams coming out of his mouth.
“I became a journalist,” he said. “But I’m not famous.”
Now he will focus on finding a home for his family, something he was unable to provide during the war between the displacement and the bombing campaigns across the strip.
“I don’t know where to go, I don’t know where to live.”
Diaa al-Ustaz
Working from the media tent, Diaa al-Ustaz typed on her laptop, trying to finish her latest story for the ABC. His press vest, blue and worn, hung on a coat rack nearby. Empty cups of coffee covered his table, fuel for the day – in post-war Gaza, there is still a lot of stories to be had.
Before the war, Al-Ustaz, 29, worked as a field coordinator for Save the Children while completing a master’s degree in civil society. As soon as the war broke out, his studies stopped and he slipped into the role of a journalist, a job he hoped to have for the rest of his life, he says. His work with Save the Children ended and he could no longer continue his studies while trying to survive the war, so instead he decided to fulfill a lifelong dream.
“Because we are in a conflict zone, there is a message that we have to deliver to all people around the world,” he said. “The field of journalism is the eyes of truth.”
Diaa al-Ustaz says his work has made him and his colleagues targets, and the International Federation of Journalists reported this month that at least 152 journalists have died covering the war.
But he said it was the humanity that comes with being a good journalist that really piqued his interest in the profession as a young man.
“Journalists must be people, they must feel with all people, have the ability to carry out the message in order to send the message around the world to all people in all languages,” he said.
