Mr. Shahada lost his leg due to a severe injury he
suffered in Nuseirat in central Gaza in April 2024, but he
picked up his camera and returned to document the tragic
events that have been unfolding in Gaza.
He will not
let his disability stop him from working. “It is
impossible for me to leave photojournalism, even if I face
all these obstacles,” he said.
Ahead of World
Press Freedom Day marked annually on 3 May which focuses
on the role of media to highlight accountability, justice,
equality, and human rights, our UN News correspondent
in Gaza spoke with Palestinian journalists, documenting the
risks and personal traumas they face reporting from the
war-torn enclave.
Since the war began following the 7
October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel an increasing number
of journalists have been killed or injured in Gaza as a
humanitarian crisis has engulfed the enclave.
Bearing
witness
On one leg, leaning on crutches, Sami Shahada
stands behind his camera, wearing his blue press jacket,
working amongst the rubble of destruction with
colleagues.
“I witnessed all the crimes that happened,
and then the moment came when I was a witness to a crime
that was perpetrated against me,” he told UN
News.
“I was a field journalist, carrying a camera
in an open area and wearing a helmet and a jacket which
identified me as a journalist, yet I was directly
targeted.”
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That incident marked a turning point in
his life. “I did not need help from anyone before, now I
need help,” adding that “I have the determination and
persistence to overcome this new reality. This is how we
journalists must work in Gaza.”
Working the
streets
Journalist Mohammed Abu Namous is another of
these journalists.
Filming with one of his colleagues
in the rubble of a destroyed building in Gaza City he said:
“While the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day,
Palestinian journalists remember their workplaces which were
destroyed in the war.”
“The minimum we need to
carry out our journalistic work is electricity and the
internet, but many do not have this, so we resort to
commercial shops that provide the internet. The streets are
now our offices.”
He believes that Palestinian
journalists have been targeted during the Israeli occupation
of Gaza and said that media workers must be protected
“whether they work in Palestine or elsewhere in the
world.”
Voices not silenced by death of loved
ones
Journalist Moamen Sharafi said he lost members
of his family in an Israeli bombing in northern Gaza, but
despite “the many negative impacts on a personal, social,
and humanitarian level, professionally nothing has
changed.”
He was determined to carry on working, he
explained, as he was due to live broadcast from the streets
of Gaza City.
“We have become more determined to
continue our work and uphold our professional values and
perform our mission with humanity to the world,” he
continued, “in order to convey the reality of what is
happening on the ground inside Gaza, specifically the
humanitarian situation, and the impact on children, women
and the elderly who suffer
greatly.”
