Content warning: this article contains graphic footage which some readers may find distressing
Israel is continuing its war on journalists. Just this week, 19 year old Hassan Hamad was killed at his home in the Jabalia refugee camp.
Israel’s killing of Palestinian journalists continues
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Hassan’s death means Israel has killed 176 Palestinian journalists so far. Al Jazeera reported that:
Colleagues and the Government’s Media Office in Gaza confirmed Hamad’s death, saying the journalist’s home was deliberately attacked to silence him after he received threats.
One of Hassan’s colleagues used his Twitter account to announce his death, writing:
With deep sorrow and pain, I mourn the journalist Hassan Hamad. I testify before God that you fulfilled your duty. Hassan Hamad, the journalist who did not live past the age of 20, resisted for a full year in his own way.
He resisted by staying away from his family so they wouldn’t be targeted. He resisted when he struggled to find an internet signal, sitting for an hour or two on the rooftop just to send the videos that reach you in seconds.
His colleague described Hassan’s final moments:
Yesterday, from 10 PM, he moved between the bombed locations and then returned to search for an internet signal, only to go back and cover the scenes of the scattered remains. He endured the pain of an injury to his leg, yet continued filming.
At 6 AM, he called me to send his last video. After a call that didn’t last more than a few seconds, he said, “There they are, there they are, it’s done,” and hung up. It’s a feeling no human can bear. Hassan also resisted the occupation, leaving behind a mark and a message that we will carry on after him. We belong to God, and to Him we shall return.
As they have with many others, Israel specifically targeted Hassan because he was a journalist.
They sent him warnings that they would kill him for reporting on the genocide. He removed himself from his family, at 19 years old, in order to keep them alive.
Then, he was warned they were coming to kill him.
That in itself should be enough to shake the foundations of the West’s moral system.
But, it will do nothing. Nothing will change and more Palestinian journalists will be targeted while everyone who can stop this genocide, does nothing.
Israel’s horror killing
Hassan was fired upon so heavily that all that remained of his body was scattered into pieces. The following is a video posted by one of Hassan’s colleagues – Hassan himself is in the blue bag his colleagues carry.
Normally, the Canary wouldn’t publish such a graphic clip.
However, on this occasion, we feel that it’s important to show the footage, and to provide the context for it.
Let’s be clear, Israel made the choice to target Hassan. They targeted him heavily, and literally tore his body into pieces. His friends and colleagues were left to scoop up his remains into bags and boxes. They did so in order to cover as much of him as they could in a funeral shroud:
هكذا يتم تكوين جثمان الصحفي حسن حمد pic.twitter.com/pTF5iubr07
— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) October 6, 2024
Journalist Hossam Shobat asked how many of his colleagues he would have to see so obliterated that their remains could only be scooped into bags:
I just saw my friend and colleague Hassan Hamad an hour ago Israeli occupation forces have just killed him, and what remains of his body is in pieces in a plastic bag. Why do I have to see my friends in plastic bags? Why is this world so cruel to us?
— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) October 6, 2024
Journalist Maha Hussaini translated the threats the Israeli army sent to Hassan:
Listen, If you continue spreading lies about Israel, we'll come for you next and turn your family into […] This is your last warning".. Journalist Hassan Hamad received this message on WhatsApp, along with several calls from an Israeli officer ordering him to stop filming in… pic.twitter.com/q6SAzMj5xc
— Maha Hussaini (@MahaGaza) October 6, 2024
Hassan was killed because he refused to be silent. He refused to stop documenting the genocide and ethnic cleansing of his own people.
Solidarity where?
One commenter on social media said:
the idf is field executing journalists in their press vests and western journo culture can’t extend them even a morsel of the trumpeting solidarity they congratulate themselves for doling out to any colleague who writes a transphobic op ed
— michael wave (@SzMarsupial) October 10, 2024
Hassan’s death alone should be enough to overturn Western media. It should have journalists scrambling to report on this travesty. One of their own has been targeted for being a journalist. They should be expressing their grief, resolving to never forget.
But, grief and remembrances are for white and Western victims. Hundreds and thousands of Palestinians being killed doesn’t warrant any grief, or in fact any response at all, from these journalists that are stenographers of power.
If you can’t even gather around a colleague’s death, then what use is your journalism?
Journalist Shorouk Asaad told The New Arab:
If 176 Israeli journalists were killed elsewhere, I do not think the world’s reaction would silence, but when we talk about a Palestinian journalist, unfortunately everyone is silent.
May their silence haunt them and their useless journalism.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Al Jazeera English
