By Mahdi Waziri Isa
The victory of the truth over falsehood, resistance over world arrogance, resilience over hypocrisy and faith over superpowers in the oppressed but powerful Gaza enclave cannot be complete without the mention of the heroic, selfless, and brave media heroes who sacrificed their everything – time, families, lives – to be the voice of the voiceless and oppressed people of Gaza. With all the media censorship and the propaganda war launched by the corporate media outlets at the behest of the all-powerful Zionist lobby groups who dictates what goes out and what does not, but the brave media martyrs of Gaza give their all to relay the genocide to the world as it happens.
I’m not referring only to the correspondents of the few mainstream media organizations – the likes of Al-Jazeera, Press TV, and Al-Mayadeen – that vows to operate in the enclave against all odds, ranging from the deliberate targeting of their staff by the IDF to the destruction of their studios and closure of their headquarters, but also to the courageous Palestinians-turned citizen journalists that chose to stay behind amidst the reckless destruction and wanton shelling of their cities and homes with barrage of missiles by the inhumane Zionist regime just to keep the world informed about the Gaza Holocaust.
They didn’t waver or deter, they stood strong and vowed to be the voices of the inhabitants of the world’s largest open-air prison. They made maximum use of the few social media outlets at their disposal, such as Telegram and Elon’s X to transmit live images of the horrendous acts of the Zionist forces.
With all the censorship and propaganda, the lies of the beheaded babies, the mass rape of Israeli captives by Hamas and the several other lies, but the Gaza media heroes did all they could to change the narrative and set the record straight.
It was these heroes that filmed the Al-Ahli hospital massacre which the Zionist forces tried as much as possible to blame it on Hamas but later got exposed, they filmed the IDF’s atrocities at the Al-Aqsa martyrs hospital and the weapons that the IDF planted in the hospital to later lied that they were the Hamas weapons they discovered from tunnels in the hospital, they disseminated the bombing of the last standing Kamal Al-Adwan hospital housing hundreds of patients and hundreds other displaced Palestinians, they filmed the desecration of the martyrs corpses for organ harvesting by the IDF, they filmed the historic scenes of Israeli captives waving at the Hamas fighters during the first captive swap in 2024, and several other events during the 15 months genocide. Not to talk of their role in transmitting the atrocities and the frequent raiding of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.
Over the 15 months of genocide, over 200 journalists were killed, among which 158 are Palestinians according to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), something the world has never witnessed even during the world wars. This is the number of only the journalists working with the few corporate media outlets operating in Gaza, not to talk of the several unspoken citizen journalists martyred on this noble course of being the voice of the voiceless and oppressed people of Gaza.
Below are some of the media martyrs who were directly targeted by the IDF soldiers in Gaza as compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ):
1. Hamza Al Dahdouh: A 27 year old Palestinian journalist and camera operator with Al-Jazeera, who was killed in Rafah, southern Gaza on 7th January, 2024. Hamza is a son to Wael Al Dahdouh, Al-Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief whose 4 family members were killed including his son, Hamza Al Dahdouh.
2. Mustafa Thuraya: A Palestinian freelance video journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP) who was killed in Rafah, southern Gaza on 7th January, 2024 alongside Hamza Al Dahdouh by an Israel strike.
3. Samer Abu Daqqa: A Palestinian camera operator with Al-Jazeera, who was killed on December 15, 2023 by a drone strike while covering the aftermath of nightly Israeli strikes on a UN school sheltering displaced people in the center of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.
4. Ismail Al Ghoul: A 27 year old Palestinian broadcast reporter working for Al-Jazeera who was killed on July 31, 2024, in an Israeli drone strike at Al Shati refugee camp near Gaza city.
5. Rami Al Refee: A 27 year old Palestinian camera operator with local Watania Media Agency who was also freelancing with Al-Jazeera. He was killed on July 31, 2024, in an Israeli drone strike alongside his colleague Ismail at Al Shati refugee camp.
6. Ayman Al Gedi: A Palestinian journalist and camera operator for Al Quds Al Youm TV who was killed on December 26, 2024, by an Israeli strike on their Press marked vehicle outside Al-Awda hospital in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp alongside five of his colleagues:
7. Fadi Hassouna, a photographer and editor
8. Muhammad Al-Ladaa, an editor
9. Faisal Abu Al Qumsan, a correspondent, and
10. Ibrahim Sheikh Ali, a fixer.
Several other journalists survived the genocide with injuries and traumas caused by losing families, friends and loved ones.
Words are not enough to pay tribute to these brave media heroes. Their legendary can’t be forgotten and will always be in the memories and prayers of the free people of the world. May all the media martyrs continue to rest in peace as the children in Gaza celebrate their victory over the world’s arrogant powers; the victory of blood, sweat and tears over weapons of mass destruction. May the Almighty heal the injured and console the hearts of those that lost their loved ones. Indeed, their reward is with the Almighty.
© Mahdi Waziri Isa