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August 29, 2025 – Palestine –
Palestinian journalists in Gaza are enduring a harrowing reality—where survival feels like a lottery. As Nour Swiriki, a 37-year-old reporter for El Sharq TV, puts it, “today is not your turn… your turn might be tomorrow or after tomorrow.” Her words capture the fear haunting media professionals who continue to document life amidst relentless Israeli bombardment. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), Israel has so far killed 240 of their colleagues, making this the deadliest stretch for journalists in Gaza in modern times.
Swiriki describes devastating losses among her peers—many injured, some maimed, and others burned alive before the world’s eyes. She speaks of a grim resignation: remaining journalists feel trapped in a “queue to death,” where their professions no longer guarantee safety but rather expose them to ruin. Only about 800 media workers remain in Gaza to bear witness to the unfolding catastrophe.
Israel’s blanket ban on independent foreign journalists entering Gaza since October 7, 2023, has left local reporters to carry the burden of frontline reporting alone. Amid intensifying warfare and surging humanitarian need, a discrepancy looms large between global demand for accurate news and the capacity of those still inside Gaza to provide it.
Press freedom advocates stress the gravity of the situation. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) highlights a long-standing pattern of impunity—no one in the Israeli military has ever been held responsible for a journalist’s death in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, powerbrokers around the world have largely remained silent, even as local reporters expose the grim consequences of conflict and blockade.
Gazan journalists are pleading for more than coverage—they demand action. As one of them put it, the world doesn’t need empty statements or broadcasts—it needs boots on the ground: international media presence that can record, validate, and amplify the truth. Without that, they say, “we are being hunted and killed… while you watch in silence”.
The plight of Gaza’s media workers is not only a story of survival—it’s a stark reminder of how catastrophic conflict depletes the last remaining witnesses in places where truth is most vital.
Reference –
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