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.
War has devastated Gaza.
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.
Sami Shehadeh looks at a video of the moment he was injured in Gaza in April 2024.
“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.”
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.”
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Abu Namous and his colleague cover the impact of the war in Gaza.
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.
Palestinian journalist, Moamen Sharafi (right,) lost several family members during the current war that started in October 2023.
“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.”