Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.

At a moment when Gaza’s journalists urgently need international protection and the solidarity of journalists and press freedom organizations worldwide — for their courage, their commitment, and their decision to remain in Gaza, sometimes sacrificing their lives to document the suffering of a population that has endured genocide for the past three years — the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has released a statement stating that some Gaza-based journalists will be removed from international protection lists because of alleged affiliations with military wings of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The decision cannot be separated from the broader Israeli policy of silencing Gaza’s remaining voices and further isolating the territory from the outside world, ensuring that the reality facing its civilian population remains unseen.

More fundamentally, however, the decision reinforces a narrative that casts Palestinian journalists as terrorists rather than reporters, replacing cameras with rifles in the public imagination.

That narrative bears little resemblance to the reality we have lived. I have worked as a journalist in Gaza for nearly a decade, and throughout this genocide, I have lost many colleagues.

Among them were Hassan Eslayeh, Fatima Hassouna, Muhammad Al-Jajeh, Hassouna Salim, Mahmoud Issa, and many close friends with whom I reported, investigated stories, and debated what needed to be covered.

Report: Israeli Military Has Unit That Exists to Justify Targeting Journalists

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, as of May 3, 2026, 262 journalists had been killed during the war, 50 remained imprisoned, three were still missing, and 420 had been wounded, some with life-altering amputations.

Hassan Eslayeh was one of Gaza’s best-known journalists. He maintained professional relationships across the political spectrum — with various........

© Truthout