Israel has killed two journalists in Gaza on Monday 24 March. Occupation forces targeted the car of Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat in northern Gaza. And they targeted the house of Palestine Today journalist Mohammad Mansour in southern Gaza. They are among an estimated 51 people Israel has killed today.
Shabat’s Al Jazeera colleague Tareq Abu Azzoum called it “another bloody day” of genocide in Gaza. And he said his 23-year-old co-worker:
had been previously wounded in an Israeli attack, but he insisted on continuing news reporting in Gaza
He added that:
the Israeli military targeted his vehicle before any prior warning.
Israel targeted Mansour, meanwhile, “alongside his wife and his son” and again, “without any prior warning”.
Because the apartheid state has prevented international reporters from entering the occupied Palestinian territory, local reporters have been the ones putting their lives and jobs on the line to get the truth out about Israel’s war crimes. And occupation forces have murdered around 200 Palestinian media workers since October 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said that, of all the journalists who were killed in 2024, “Israel is responsible for two-thirds of those deaths and yet continues to act with total impunity”.
Two journalists have been killed today in Gaza; Mohammed Mansour and Hossam Shabat. pic.twitter.com/UxMWXjxtDZ
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) March 24, 2025
The CPJ has called “for an independent international investigation into whether they were deliberately targeted”. CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said:
This nightmare in Gaza has to end. The international community must act fast to ensure that journalists are kept safe and hold Israel to account for the deaths of Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour. Journalists are civilians and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone.
“One of the hardest jobs in the world: to cover the genocide of my own people”
Shabat had previously said:
Before this genocide started, I was a young college student studying journalism. Little did I know I would be given one of the hardest jobs in the world: to cover the genocide of my own people. After 193 days, I have lost close to 100 people from friends and family ( that I know of ). I have lost my house the very first day . I have lost about 23 kg (50 pounds), I have lost my city, I have lost myself. It’s like that young man once full of life is all gone and I have aged 100 years .
Hossam in his own words. https://t.co/uoe41hgmBy pic.twitter.com/UWt1Byszxn
— Writers Against the War on Gaza (@wawog_now) March 24, 2025
With Israel breaking the ceasefire and resuming its genocide in recent days, he returned to “the front lines”:
I thought it was over and I'd finally get some rest, but the genocide is back in full force, and I'm back on the front lines. pic.twitter.com/1f3UGGmVK0
— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) March 21, 2025
He also stressed that he had been facing “death threats from Israeli extremists“:
Before being killed, journalist @HossamShabat warned of threats and incitement against him:
"False accusations that constitute an assassination threat and a clear attempt to justify our pre-emptive killing." #JournalismIsNotACrime #hossamshabat #GazaHolocaust pic.twitter.com/CvCR9lnEpi
— Sahat English 🇵🇸 (@sahatenglish) March 24, 2025
At the end of 2024, Shabat was “one of six Palestinians that Israeli forces included on a list of some of the only journalists left reporting in north Gaza”. Occupation forces tried to smear them as terrorists to pre-emptively justify their assassination.
In one of his last final Instagram stories, Shabat questioned the lack of support for Palestine from Western-allied Arab nations in the region:
One of @HossamShabat’s last instagram stories before he was killed by Israel.
“Oh people of the Emirates
Oh people of Saudi Arabia
Oh people of Jordan
Oh people of Egypt
Where are you?”This entire world has failed him and failed all Palestinians. He was 23 years old. 23. pic.twitter.com/TafsrNyp8r
— Khadija (@khadljasays) March 24, 2025
Featured image via screengrabs
