Well-known Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat killed by Israeli air raid

At Israeli air strikes, two journalists were killed in Gaza on Monday. First the Palestinian journalist Mohammed Mansour, correspondent for Palestine Today TV, killed by an air raid on his house north of Khan Younis. Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat reported about this on social media. Shortly thereafter he died himself through an air strike on his car in the north of Gaza.

In a video that was shared by Shabats Al-Sharif on social media, you can see that his body and bodies of others lie next to a car.

The 23-year-old Shabat was a well-known journalist for the Arabic-language channel Al Jazeera Mubasher, he has continuously reported from Gaza in very dangerous circumstances for the past eighteen months. When Israel again besieged the north of Gaza in October 2024, and imposed a complete blockade and largely destroyed the region, Shabat was one of the few journalists who continued to report on the spot.

Threats

Various Shabat colleagues at Nieuwszender Al Jazeera were previously killed by Israeli attacks, including cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, Ismail al-Ghoul, and Hamza al-Dahdouh. « We are not criminals, » said Hossam Shabat after the death of his colleague Ismail Al-Goul, who was also killed by an Israeli air raid on his car.

Shabat was previously injured during his reporting in Gaza. He has been threatened by the Israeli authorities for a long time. In December 2023 he said he had received a phone call from an Israeli intelligence officer while he was in Beit Hanoun in North Gaza, who instructed him to leave because otherwise his house would be bombed.

Various Shabat colleagues at Nieuwszender Al Jazeera were previously killed by Israeli attacks

In October last year, Israel claimed that Shabat and five other journalists in Gaza were members of the militant branch of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and thereby labeled them as ‘terrorists’ and target. Shabat wrote on X that the « false accusations amount to a murder attempt ».

Israel also made such claims with other journalists who killed it in Gaza. In a response, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote last October that Israel « has (repeatedly made) unproven statements without providing credible evidence. »

Targeted attacks

Israel has targeted journalists in Gaza, according to report From reporters without borders and the CPJ. According to figures Of the CPJ, since October 2023, at least 162 Palestinian journalists and employees of Media have been killed in Gaza and on the West Bank. The organization speaks of the deadliest period for journalists since it started collecting data a few decades ago.

« Journalists are citizens and it is illegal to attack them in a war zone, » said CPJ program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in a response From New York. « Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested or banned, we lose pieces of the truth, » he said last month about killed journalists in Gaza.

Vest

The Israeli oppression of media is not limited to Gaza-where, by the way, no foreign press has been admitted since October 2023-but also affects Palestinian journalists on the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem. A week ago the journalist Latifeh Abdellatif was arrested in the old city in East Jerusalem, on accusation of ‘incitement’ on social media.

On the same day as the attacks on journalists Hossam Shabat and Mohammed Mansour, dozens of Palestinians were again killed in air strikes on Gaza. « I thought it was over and I could finally have some peace, » written Shabat last Friday on X above a video of himself, while he was dressed in a press vest’s helmet. « But the genocide is back at full power, and I am back at the front lines. »

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