With hardly any food or water, no electricity to charge their equipment, no internet and under the constant threat of bombing by the Israeli army, local journalists in Gaza are the only voices that narrate the conflict from within the Strip. The total siege decreed by the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, has prevented the entry of both the international and Israeli press, which causes Gaza to be “ on the verge of an information blackout,” he denounces Reporters Without Borders (RSF). But the bombs are also silencing informants. The Israeli army’s airstrike campaign against the Strip has caused the death of more than 6,500 people, including twenty journalists, and has destroyed or damaged some 50 media outlets in the Palestinian enclave, among the thousands of infrastructure affected.
Hossam B is a Gazan journalist who does not want to give his real name to protect himself and respect the security instructions of the media outlet he works for. He is one of 50 reporters who, RSF estimates, have had to “precipitously abandon their homes in Gaza City” due to Israeli evacuation orders. He has been in the south of the Strip for more than a week with his wife, who has health problems that are aggravated in stressful situations, and four children. “I have already seen a few wars in Gaza, but I have never cried as much as these days, while working,” he says, in a telephone conversation with this newspaper at the end of a new and exhausting work day. “It’s not like anything we’ve experienced before, no one is safe. It’s so unfair… I just want to tell the truth, as a journalist that I am, so that someone stops this now and our families can be saved,” he adds, exhausted.
According to cases confirmed by RSF, at least 10 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, have been killed in a bombing. They had moved from the north of the Strip to Nuseirat, in the center, after Israel warned residents to leave the area due to an imminent ground incursion. They have also lost their lives this Wednesday, due to another Israeli air attack in the south of the Palestinian enclave, the wife and son of journalist Mohammed Farrawho was working in Ramallah (West Bank).
⭕️ LIVE: Family members of Al Jazeera Arabic Gaza corresponding to Wael Dahdouh killed in an Israeli strike, including his wife, son and daughter. https://t.co/3qo1DkcpCr
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
He Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) brings the total number of deceased informants to 24 (20 Palestinians, three Israelis and one Lebanese). “The figure is similar to all the journalists killed in Palestine during the last 10 years,” condemns Edith Rodríguez Cachera, vice president of RSF Spain. The last confirmed victim, Mohammad Baalouche, director of the Palestine Today television channel, was “killed” in a selective attack against his home in Gaza, denounces this international organization of journalists.
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“Exponential dangers”
Local Palestinian journalists “are the eyes of what is happening on the ground, but they face exponential dangers, including not only airstrikes, but also a possible ground incursion,” Sherif Mansour, coordinator of the Palestinian CPJ Middle East and North Africa. Many of them “have lost their homes and their families, they have had to flee to the south, where they continue to face great danger when they work, and where they do not have access to computers or the Internet” to carry out their informative work, he continues.
They also cannot receive help from abroad as a result of the blockade, which Israel has maintained since 2007, points out Rodríguez Cachera. “You cannot send them solar batteries to make up for the shortage of electricity, which is what is used in conflict zones, nor can they be equipped or evacuated, as happened with the Afghan journalists. [tras el regreso de los talibanes, en agosto de 2021]”, Add.
These are precisely the conditions under which Hossam B has to carry out his job. “We are working on our land and we have two duties: one with our people and another with our family. I live it in that order. I go out to work and do everything I can to convey the truth of what our people are suffering. And I also spend part of the day trying to reassure and keep my family safe,” he explains. “Because when you see dead children every day, entire families buried under the ruins, or mothers of wounded families who end up dying, you only think about your loved ones. “It only takes one second for your children to be those dead children,” he adds. If at some point Egypt allowed Gazans to leave or this reporter could benefit from an evacuation, he is not sure if he would take advantage of the opportunity. “It is a difficult question. I would do everything to keep my family safe, but I don’t know if I would leave or stay working. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
Working as a journalist in any international conflict is complex, but, according to Mansour, in the specific case of Gaza they have detected a decreasing presence of international journalists and media. “Many, because of the risk it entails because in other Gaza wars the facilities of other media outlets have already been bombed,” such as Al Jazeera, the Qatari channel that the Israeli Government is now trying to ban with an emergency rule that will allow it to close media outlets. communications whose information “damages national security.” And 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 accountable.”
At other peak moments 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, there were foreign journalists inside the Strip. In this case, the two steps that could give entry to the international press: one in the north, from Israel, and another in the south, from Egypt, are closed. No one has entered or left Gaza since October 7, except for the few humanitarian aid trucks that have entered in recent days.
Other forms of repression
Repression against journalism also “takes other forms,” in addition to direct attacks on the lives of reporters and photographers, RSF recalls. According to him Palestinian Press Syndicate, fifty media outlets have been totally or partially destroyed in Gaza, including 24 “radio stations” that broadcast over the air or online, which are “one of the main sources of information for the local population,” he explains. Rodríguez Cachera. “Dozens of these media were grouped in large towers in Gaza City, which were among the first to be bombed” by Israel, adds Mansour. In addition, the bombings destroyed a temporary tent housing teams from France Presse, Reuters, BBC and Al Jazeera in the south of the Strip, without causing any injuries, adds RSF.
The pressure also falls on those who practice journalism outside the Strip. Three BBC journalists were held at gunpoint by an Israeli police officer on their way to their hotel in Tel Aviv. And in Jerusalem, Ahmad Darwasha, correspondent for Al Araby TV, was threatened and insulted during a live broadcast by another Israeli police officer. “I really hope you say good things,” she snapped when the reporter explained that he was telling her what “the spokesperson” for the Israeli Armed Forces had said. And he concluded, looking at the camera: “Murderers, murderers… Gaza should be turned into dust.”
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