After 18 months of war, photojournalist Abdul Raouf Shaath thought he had seen everything.
Mr. Shaath was taking a nap in a tent encampment near Khan Yunis’ Nasser Hospital April 6 after a long day documenting missile strikes, when an Israeli airstrike shook the ground and sent shrapnel flying.
He rushed outside to find a local news outlet’s tent in flames.
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Gaza journalists continue to don their press vests and report – even as Israel blurs the line between media workers and military targets and a staggering death toll mounts. They say they are driven to stop the world from shifting its attention.
“I started to realize there was someone sitting in a chair, engulfed in flames,” he says.
That person was Ahmed Mansour, a journalist and editor for Palestine Today, who had been typing on his laptop just moments before the missile struck. Israel said the strike had targeted another journalist, whom it accused of belonging to Hamas.
“I was in disbelief. It felt like a nightmare unfolding in real time,” Mr. Shaath says, his hands trembling as he recalled the incident. “He didn’t move at all.”
Mr. Shaath says he attempted to rescue Mr. Mansour. But the heat and smoke were intense, and he lost consciousness as he tried to pull his colleague from the tent. When he awoke, he discovered Mr. Mansour and a second journalist, Helmi al-Faqawi, had died from their injuries.
But Mr. Shaath, and his fellow journalists, move on.
In the middle of the action
Amid increasing risks, Gaza journalists continue to don their press vests, hit the field, film, write, and file – even as the line between military targets and media workers is blurred.
They say they are driven by a mission: to document the impact of the war in Gaza on their community and prevent the world from averting its gaze.
When they are not reporting, you can find Gaza journalists in bustling tents abutting the courtyards of hospitals, where they can plug in their equipment and where the victims of the latest Israeli strikes are brought in waves.
Since relentless airstrikes have reduced news outlets’ Gaza offices to rubble, journalists have taken refuge in these makeshift newsrooms, urgently buzzing with reporting a war in real time.
The two main hubs are next to the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, and Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. The encampments have brought Gaza journalists closer together than ever before.
“Our connections and ties have grown stronger than with our family members,” says Mr. Shaath, the journalist. “We share our problems and the challenges we face with one another; we share our equipment.”
Due to Israel’s blockade, no media equipment has entered the coastal enclave since October 2023.
“If you lose equipment or it is damaged due to overuse or attacks, there are no replacement parts or alternatives available,” says Ibrahim Otla, a filmmaker and video journalist from Gaza.
Intentional targets?
In these bustling tents, amid deadlines and live feeds, the talk and threat of death are never far behind.
Israel’s military offensive on Gaza has killed 232 journalists, according to Brown University’s Cost of War project, more than the U.S. Civil War, both world wars, the Vietnam War, and the U.S. war in Afghanistan combined.
That toll – an average of 1 journalist killed every 3 days according to the Brown University report – has left Gaza journalists believing there is a target on their backs.
Armored press vests, designed to stop bullets, have proved useless in the face of missiles and artillery shells.
Abdallah Miqdad, correspondent for Qatar-owned Al Araby TV, recalls chatting with Palestine TV correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab, who was killed just hours after they had met.
“We met, and a few hours later, he became part of the news. I am afraid of becoming part of the news cycle,” admits Mr. Miqdad. “Everyone is a target; nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
“As I watched many of my colleagues being killed, targeted one by one, I couldn’t help but wonder: When will it be my turn?” says Maha Husseini, a freelance journalist with Middle East Eye, a United Kindgom-based Qatari news outlet. “I feel like I could be next at any moment.”
Israeli allegations
Israel denies intentionally targeting Palestinian journalists. On multiple occasions, Israel has accused slain Gaza reporters of having ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, making them legitimate military targets. Their colleagues deny the charges.
The Israeli strike in early April that killed Palestine Today’s Mr. Mansour targeted Hassan Aslih, who the Israeli army said was a member of Hamas’ Khan Yunis brigade, and said documented and uploaded footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In August 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on Israel to “stop making unproven claims that journalists slain by its forces are terrorists or engaging in militant activity,” demanding “independent investigations into these killings.”
As of late April 2025, no independent investigation into journalists’ deaths has been carried out.
The killing of journalists by Israeli airstrikes has become so frequent that many Palestinians in Gaza now refuse to accommodate reporters, for fear that they are on an Israeli target list and will attract missile strikes on their homes.
“This is natural; I don’t blame people” for avoiding journalists, Mr. Otla, the filmmaker, remarks. “People have seen how systematically Israel has killed journalists.”
Last Saturday, Fatima Hassouna, a journalist featured in a documentary set to premier at the Cannes Film Festival in May, was killed along with her family.
She wrote in one of her last social media posts, “If I die, I want a loud death. I don’t want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group. I want a death that the world will hear.”
“I’m giving voice”
Gaza’s journalists say they remain motivated by a sense of responsibility to their community and by the impact of storytelling. Advocating for their people, they can also honor fallen colleagues.
“Every time I capture a moment of truth, I feel like I’m giving a voice to those who can’t speak for themselves,” explains Mr. Otla. “Knowing that my work can shed light on my people’s struggles drives me forward.”
Israel’s ongoing restrictions on foreign journalists visiting Gaza – the Monitor is one of dozens of media organizations that have been unable to secure permission to enter – means that the onus of reporting on the war falls on Gaza residents themselves.
“The burden is on us, the Palestinian journalists, to document and convey the message,” says Mr. Otla.
For others, staying in the field is a commitment to a childhood dream that now borders on a nightmare, in the hopes that better days lie ahead.
“Ever since I was young, I wanted to be a journalist,” says Mr. Shaath, the photojournalist, who as a young man shadowed journalists to learn from them.
He yearns for the prewar days.
“I used to take photos of the good and bright side of Gaza,” he says, “Now that is gone.”
No matter how dark the war becomes, Gaza’s journalists say they are determined to continue.
“Even if the world is numb to our voices today, that doesn’t mean we should stop,” says Al Araby’s Mr. Miqdad. “We must keep telling our stories.”
Special correspondent Taylor Luck contributed to this report from Amman, Jordan.
