Palestinian journalists in Gaza are risking their lives daily to report from an enclave ravaged by ongoing Israeli bombardments, frequently becoming targets themselves. Since October 7, at least 210 Gazan journalists have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), making it the deadliest conflict for media professionals in recent history. Beyond the immediate threat of bombs, they contend with pervasive famine, repeated displacement, a severe lack of electricity, and unreliable internet, all of which hinder their vital work.
For several days now, Rami Abou Jamous, a Palestinian journalist, has stayed confined to his home in western Gaza City with his wife and two young children, aged four years and seven months. Israeli forces, conducting an intensified offensive in Gaza City since mid-August, could issue an evacuation order at any moment, leaving families mere minutes to flee before bombardment. “My daily life changed three days ago, when they started bombing the towers, like the one where I live,” Rami explained, speaking shortly before a major ground offensive in Gaza City. “I’ve prepared three suitcases and put them downstairs; they give us only ten to fifteen minutes to leave.”
The 47-year-old struggles not only with the fear of leaving his family behind but also with the physical demands of reporting. “For several weeks now, because of the famine and my age, I no longer have the strength to walk for miles under the sun,” he said. Like half a million other people, according to the UN, Rami faces severe food shortages under a complete humanitarian blockade. Prices for available food have skyrocketed. “Prices have multiplied by 8, even by 100; last time I bought a bag of flour for 1,000 euros.” Despite the hardship, he considers himself “lucky compared to others,” as his family eats a piece of bread with a traditional spice blend (zaatar) in the morning and lentils in the evening. “It gives a feeling of being full. Although, the other day, after eating lentils every day, I got gout; my foot was swollen, and I couldn’t walk.”
Hamed Sbeata, a 23-year-old Gazan journalist, faces a different yet equally grave challenge: a desperate lack of safe drinking water. Due to Alport Syndrome, a genetic condition requiring a kidney transplant in 2020, he needs mineral water to stay healthy. “The water here is very polluted; it’s very harmful to my health. It affects my blood pressure, my heart rate, and causes severe headaches,” Hamed detailed, presenting medical reports.
“I often wanted to stop working, take a break, not go into the field anymore, but I can’t,” Hamed asserted. “It’s my passion, and the cost of living here is very high, so it’s essential that I work to support my family, despite the danger and the fear of bombardments.” Having worked for outlets like Sky News, France TV, and TF1, Hamed believes he has “miraculously escaped death” multiple times.
Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East bureau, describes the death toll as “unprecedented,” calling Gaza “currently the most dangerous place for journalists.” He highlighted that even protective gear like bulletproof vests and helmets, marked with “PRESS,” paradoxically “turn journalists into targets.” As a result, many reporters now work without such visible protection. This fear extends to the local population, who increasingly avoid proximity to journalists, fearing they too will become targets. “People don’t want to get too close to journalists, they don’t want their tent next to a journalist’s, for example, because they fear being targeted,” Dagher explained.
Rami has experienced this apprehension firsthand. Walking the same street to his office in Gaza City, a resident jokingly warned him, “Next time you won’t pass this way because you are threatened.” Rami stopped using that route. “We, journalists in general, are all condemned to death. They don’t want witnesses to their crimes,” he lamented. “To silence us, they kill us.”
Journalists are also caught in the cycles of forced displacement. Rami first fled Gaza City in November 2023 when his neighborhood was encircled. “The army told us to evacuate, to leave with white flags from a specific place. We did, but they shot at us; one of our neighbors was killed,” he recalled. He then moved to Rafah, in the south, before relocating twice more and returning to Gaza City during a ceasefire last winter. Now, with a new major offensive, Israeli forces have again called for Gaza City’s evacuation. “Like me, some people don’t want to move south yet. Some can’t afford it because it costs money, and there’s no more space in the south.”
Hamed and his family recently migrated for the sixth time since October 7, after days of uncertainty as bombings drew closer. They found a spot in a refugee camp in the south, where they live in a white tent, their belongings hastily piled beside a makeshift stove fashioned from a rusty barrel and a clothesline. This stark reality is far from his “beautiful house” in the Al-Shuja’iyya neighborhood, which has been “wiped off the map.” Despite these dire conditions, Hamed continues to film the congested lines of trucks and cars filled with Gazans fleeing south, some resorting to donkey carts because a liter of gasoline costs over $100.
Compounding these dangers is a “media blockade” exacerbated by communication breakdowns. Gaza has been without electricity since October 7, forcing journalists to rely on generators or solar panels for charging equipment. Internet connectivity is also rare. “Because of the destruction, communication has generally been cut off, but most of our work is done via the internet. To send footage, to do live broadcasts, you need internet,” Rami said, noting frequent “blackouts.” To circumvent these issues, some, like Hamed, use virtual SIM cards to try and “continue working and communicating with the world.”
Jonathan Dagher of RSF underscored the difficulty for Gaza-based journalists to access sources or communicate with international newsrooms, a challenge intensified by Israel’s prevention of international press entry into the enclave. RSF, which has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court, condemns this “unprecedented media blockade” and the “defamation” targeting Palestinian journalists, often accused by Israel of supporting Hamas. “They are often accused, before or after their death, of being terrorists, whereas for many, they were resisting the oppression led by Hamas before the start of the war,” Dagher argued. “This aims to question their integrity and therefore the information they cover.” He added, “When we see the atrocious images coming out of the Gaza Strip, we can clearly see why the Israeli army has an interest in muzzling the press.”
