What is to be a journalist in Gaza

“I never imagined that one day I would live and work in a tent, deprived of the most fundamental human necessities – even water and a bathroom.

“It looks more like a greenhouse in summer and a refrigerator in winter,” journalist Abdullah Miqdad told the BBC.

After 22 months of war in Gaza, most journalists find themselves working in tents around hospitals in order to access electricity and the reliable internet connection they need to do their job.

The food has been cut through Gaza, so hospitals, whose generators still work, provide electricity to load phones and equipment and offer high points with better mobile reception.

But working in hospitals has not offered them security, with Israeli strikes in hospitals and their compounds killing a number of journalists during the conflict.

On Monday, five journalists were part of at least 20 people killed in a double Israeli strike at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The international media, including the BBC, are based on local journalists in Gaza, because Israel does not allow them to send journalists to the territory, except on rare occasions when they are anchored with Israeli troops.

At least 197 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began following the attack led by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 – 189 of them from Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza, according to the American Committee to protect journalists (CPJ).

Ahed Farwana of Palestinian journalists Syndicate in Gaza told the BBC that he and his colleagues felt targeted by Israeli forces “who leave us a constant fear for our own security and that of our families”.

After almost two years of war, journalists are exhausted by work constantly, but the demand for news persists.

This opened the door to young people in Gaza, some of whom had never worked in journalism before, to become journalists and photojournalists.

Some journalists officially work for local or international media, but many are hired on temporary contracts. This means that their use is less predictable and that the protective equipment, the insurance and the resources they receive vary considerably.

“Each journalist in the world has the right to take advantage of international protection. Unfortunately, the Israeli army does not treat journalists in this way, especially with regard to Palestinian journalists,” Ghada al-Kurd, correspondent for German magazine Der Spiegel, told BBC (for which she also sometimes works).

Israel has repeatedly denied that his forces target journalists.

However, the Israeli army said that it had targeted Al Jazeera Anas Al-Sharif’s correspondent in its media tent in Gaza City on August 10, in a strike that also killed three other Al Jazeera employees, two freelancers and another man. The army allegedly alleged that Sharif had “served the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas”, which he had denied before his death.

The CPJ said that Israel had not provided evidence to support its allegation and accused the Israeli forces of targeting journalists in a “deliberate and systematic attempt to cover Israel’s actions” in Gaza.

Reuters Cameraman Husam Al-Masri was killed on Monday during the first strike at Nasser Hospital. The second strike, a few minutes later, killed rescuers and four other journalists who had arrived at the scene – Mariam Abu Dagga, a freelancer working with the Associated Press; Al Jazeera Cameraman Mohammad Salama; Independent journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz and the freelance video journalist Moaz Abu Taha.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a “tragic incident”.

The Israeli army said on Tuesday that after a first investigation, “it seems” that “the troops struck” a camera positioned by Hamas in the Nasser hospital region which was used to observe the activity of the troops (Israeli) “. He also identified six people who, according to them, were” terrorists “killed in strikes. None of the five journalists were among them.

The army provided no evidence and gave no explanation to the second strike.

“When you work inside a tent, you never know what could happen at any time. Your tent or its environment could be bombed – what are you doing then?” Said Abdullah Miqdad, who is correspondent for Al-Arabby TV based in Qatar.

“In front of the camera, I must be very concentrated, mentally alert and lively spirit despite exhaustion. But the most difficult part is to remain aware of everything that is happening around me and to think about what I could do if the place where I am is targeted,” he told the BBC.

Last Friday, famine was confirmed for the first time in Gaza City by a body supported by the UN responsible for monitoring food security.

The integrated classification of the food security phase (IPC) reported that more than 500,000 people in the Gaza Strip were faced with “famine, destitution and death”.

Gaza journalists suffer from the same extreme hunger as those they cover.

“A cup of coffee mixed with minced chickpeas, or a glass of unsweetened tea, could be everything you can consume for a whole day of work,” said independent journalist Ahmed Jalal.

“We suffer from serious headaches and fatigue, unable to walk hunger,” he told the BBC, “but we continue our work.”

Ahmed has been moved several times with his family, but each time he continued his journalistic work while trying to obtain food, water and a shelter for his family.

“My heart breaks with intense pain when I point out the murder of journalist colleagues, and my mind tells me that I could be the next … The pain consumes me inside, but I hide it on the camera and continue to work.”

“I feel muffled, exhausted, hungry, frightened – and I can’t even stop to rest.”

Ghada Al-Kurd says that two years of news from death and hunger changed her.

“During this war, we lost the ability to express our emotions,” Ghada told BBC. “We are in a constant state of shock. Perhaps we will find this capacity after the end of the war.”

To date, Ghada retains her fear for her two daughters and sorrow for her brother and family, whose bodies she believes that are still buried under rubble following an Israeli strike in the north of Gaza at the start of the war.

“War changed our psyche and our personalities. We will need a long period of healing to return to whom we were before October 7, 2023.”

The Amer Sultan photojournalist in Gaza helped prepare the report.