Foreign media couldn’t get into Gaza, so the journalists living there recorded it for the world

Their cameras dusty, their blue press vests worn from extreme use and emotions still running high, Palestinian journalists in Gaza are still at work after rejoicing at having survived the war amid the ceasefire announced a week ago. 

As foreign media members were not allowed into the Gaza Strip, the responsibility for reporting fell on the shoulders of local journalists who shot footage of their neighbours and sometimes their own families’ final moments — all to ensure international media outlets could bring the world inside the devastation the enclave’s 2.2 million civilians have endured. Roughly 90 per cent of the population has been displaced since Israel launched its military campaign 15 months ago, many moving than once. 

Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to its health ministry, a retaliatory offensive to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas was responsible for killing 1,200 people and led to the capture of more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. 

Three Palestinian journalists spoke with CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife about what it was like to report on the war while they were living with the effects of it in their homes.

Talat Abu Musabah

“I cannot believe that I managed to survive this genocidal war,” said Talat Abu Musabah, who works with Press TV.

“From the very beginning of this war, Israeli forces have been targeting Palestinian journalists.”

In a press release earlier this month, the International Federation of Journalists announced that “at least 152 journalists” had been killed in Gaza during the war. The release went on to condemn the killings, calling for an “immediate investigation” into their deaths. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts the death toll at 167 journalists, noting it’s investigating the reports of many other fatalities.

On the day CBC spoke to Abu Musabah, he said he was “amazed” that he was still alive. 

The 37-year-old picked up work with the Iranian news agency Press TV, covering airstrikes, ground attacks and death in the Gaza Strip. He said he wanted to report on the conflict to “raise the voices of Palestinian people.” A journalist long before Oct. 7, 2023, he said that this line of work has always been his calling. 

“To me journalism is one of the most crucial aspects of our daily lives as Palestinian people,” he said. “We have this relentless battle with the Israeli occupation forces in terms of the struggle.” 

As he looks back on the days of the war, he describes them as “extremely horrific.”

As families return to Rafah, the grim task of searching through the rubble in the hopes of finding their loved ones’ remains for burial awaits many. Though the Gaza Health Ministry estimates roughly 47,000 civilians died in the war, a study published in the Lancet on Jan. 9 suggests the actual tally is much higher.

But “it was a momentous day when the ceasefire agreement was announced,” Abu Musabah said. “We were very elated having this ceasefire come into effect.” 

Sami Abu Salem

A viral video made rounds on social media of a group of Palestinian journalists gathered near the European Hospital in Khan Younis to celebrate the moment the ceasefire took effect on Sunday. They sang and cheered, sharing in the moment of survival and remembering colleagues who could not be there to celebrate this with them. 

Sami Abu Salem, a writer with Wafa Agency, described the conflicted feelings he and his colleagues now carry with them in a post-war Gaza. 

“I’m lucky and satisfied because we are alive,” he said in an interview. “But at the same time, I am so upset because we lost over 200 of our colleagues.” 

The 53-year-old writer was cautiously optimistic as he explained that the ceasefire, still in its early days, is “fragile” — and can be broken at any moment. 

The father also described his own struggle in the last 15 months — even as he covered the devastation of the war and its implications on people around him, he also went home to a tent and tried to find food, water and supplies for his own family. But he says his inability to balance everything often left him feeling defeated during the conflict.

“During the war, as a journalist, I felt that I could not do my job well. Either to take care of my kids, to look for a place to stay or to look for food and water for my kids,” he said. “Or to cover the news and take pictures.” 

Still, he had hopes of becoming a famous journalist and felt it was his patriotic duty to ensure the stories of the war were told to the world. 

Visibly tired, he laughs as he hears the dreams come out of his mouth. 

“I have become a journalist,” he said. “But I’m not famous.” 

Now, he will focus on finding a home for his family, something he wasn’t able to secure during the war between displacements and bombing campaigns across the strip. 

“I do not know where to go, I don’t know where to live.” 

Diaa Al-Ustaz

Working from the media tent, Diaa Al-Ustaz typed away on his laptop, trying to finish his latest story for ABC. His press vest, blue and worn out, hung on a coat rack nearby. Empty cups of coffee littered his desk, fuel for a day’s work — in a post-war Gaza, there is still many stories to tell. 

Before the war, Al-Ustaz, 29, worked as a field co-ordinator for Save the Children while completing his master’s degree in civil societies. As soon as the war broke out, his studies came to a halt, and he was thrust into the role of a journalist, a job he hoped for his entire life he says. His work with Save The Children ended and he could no longer continue his studies while trying to survive the war so instead he decided to fulfil a lifelong dream. 

“Since we are located in a conflict zone, there is a message we have to deliver for all the people worldwide,” he said. “The journalism field is the eyes of the truth.” 

But he said it’s the humanity that comes with being a good journalist that really piqued his interest in the profession as a young boy. 

“Journalists have to be human, have to feel with all people, have the ability to do coverage to send the message worldwide to all the people in all of the languages,” he said.