Palestinian journalists document the suffering of Gaza despite injury and the loss of family

Shehadeh still adheres to his profession, despite his severe injury, he lost his leg in Al -Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip in April 2024.

Before World Press Freedom Day The United Nations News correspondent in Gaza spoke with a number of Palestinian journalists, highlighting the risks and challenges they face in the midst of the war in Gaza, where they are forced to overcome personal shocks and continuous risks in order to continue their work.

“I was a witness”

With one leg, based on crutches, Sami Shehadeh stands behind his camera, wearing his blue journalist journalist, continuing to work with his colleagues in a street in Gaza City. He says to our correspondent: “I was a witness to all the crimes that occurred, and the moment I witnessed the crime that happened with me. I was a journalist in the field, wearing all the well -known press references, and despite that, I was directly targeted, although I was in an open area and clearly that I was a journalist, I wore the helmet and journalistic journalist and carry the camera and my colleagues with me, and despite that, I was targeted.”

This incident was the beginning of a new stage explaining it to the United Nations news by saying: “Then a big shift occurred in my life, I did not need help from anyone, now I need help. Despite the difficult situation, I am trying to overcome it, but I have determination and persistence, I am trying to overcome the current reality so that I do not need help from anyone.”

Insistence and determination to challenge the difficulties

Sami says that he has returned to work to prove to the world that the journalist in Gaza has determination and determination what makes him challenge the difficulties: “For this reason, I went back to work, in order to exceed all the obstacles that I ordered as a television photographer in this war, in order to show the world how the journalist in Gaza has determination and determination, and how persecuted is, and in return how the journalist has a dream and tries to reach high degrees, and how he suffers and struggles in his life in order to achieve his goals.”

Sami Shehadeh takes a rest with his colleagues and takes this opportunity to show us clips from his mobile phone that shows the moment he was injured in the Nusseirat camp last year.

Streets instead of offices

Journalist Mohamed Abu Namous spoke with the United Nations News reporter while he was filming a press report accompanied by one of his colleagues over the ruins of a devastating building in Gaza City. Abu Namous said: While the world celebrates the International Day of the Freedom of the Press, Palestinian journalists remember their places and headquarters destroyed by the Israeli forces, so the Palestinian journalist became without a place..

Abu Namous adds that journalists in the sector are looking for a place “with the lowest elements of journalistic work such as electricity and the Internet, they have no place, so they resort to commercial stores that provide the Internet, as well as to the streets that have become a starting point for journalists working in the field.”

He continued, saying: “This targeting of Palestinian journalists exposes the Israeli occupation and also exposes all slogans that call for the need to protect journalists, or at least protect the freedom of work of the press, whether in the Palestinian land or in the whole world.”

Loss of loved ones does not silence the sound

The reporter, Moamen Al -Sharafi, said that he lost members of his family in an Israeli bombing in the northern Gaza Strip. Despite “the many negative effects and repercussions on the personal, social and humanitarian levels,” all this did not resolve his resolve to continue his journalistic work.

This is explained to the United Nations news while he was preparing to appear in a live broadcast from a street in Gaza City: “But on the professional level, nothing has changed despite this painful blow that I received – like other journalists who lost their families in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli war that has been going on for more than 500 days.”

Moamen Al -Sharafi continues, saying: “Rather, we have been determined to continue our work, continue our professional values, and perform our message in all humanity to the world, to transfer the image and the reality of the situation that is taking place on the ground inside the Gaza Strip, specifically the humanitarian part, and the impact of the fire of this war on children, women, the elderly and patients who suffer from both areas of the sector.”

People’s freedom hostage to the freedom of the press

Prepare World Press Freedom Day The United Nations revives on May 3 As a reminder to governments, it is necessary to respect their commitment to the freedom of the press. In message On this occasion, the Secretary -General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said that the freedom of the press is facing an unprecedented threat at the present time, noting that the free and independent press is the backbone that is based on the principles of accountability, justice, equality and human rights.

Guterres stressed the need for journalists to be everywhere the ability to transmit news freely and without fear or favoritism. He added:

“It is tragic that possessing this ability is objected to by more general difficulties for a year, and it involves more risks. Journalists are subjected to attacks, detention, control, intimidation and violence, but they are also subjected to death, just because they do their work.”

The Secretary -General warned that we are “We are witnessing a significant increase in the number of dead journalists in the conflict areas, especially in Gaza.”