Marked for Assassination: Gaza Journalists on Israeli Hit List Refuse to Stop Reporting
Israel singled out six journalists. After it killed Hossam Shabat, the others discuss reporting in the crosshairs.
The day after the assassination of Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, the Israeli military openly celebrated his killing. A correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher and a contributor to Drop Site News, Shabat was killed on March 24 when the Israeli military targeted him as he was driving in his car in Beit Lahia. He was 23 years old. Earlier that day, journalist Mohamed Mansour of Palestine Today was killed, along with his wife and son, in an Israeli airstrike on his home in Khan Younis.
On its official X account the following day, the Israeli military confirmed it had “eliminated” Shabat, claiming they had “exposed” his role within Hamas six months earlier, and the statement concluded with the haunting words: “Don’t let the press vest confuse you, Hossam was a terrorist.”
The Israeli military was referring to its outrageous accusation, in October 2024, that Shabat and five other journalists—all of whom work for Al Jazeera—were fighters in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The statement also said that most of them were working in northern Gaza: an area where only a handful of journalists had remained, and where Israel had launched a concentrated extermination campaign earlier that month. At the time, Shabat and his colleagues, those who remained in the north, were on the ground, providing constant coverage to document Israeli atrocities.
After Israel’s announcement, Shabat called on people to speak out using the hashtag #ProtectTheJournalists: “I plead everyone to share the reality about Journalists in order to spread awareness about the real plans of the Israeli occupation to target journalists in order to impose a media blackout. Spread the hashtag and talk about us!”
Israel’s killing of journalists with impunity is nothing new. In 2023, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a report titled “Deadly Pattern,” which documented Israel’s killing of journalists over a twenty-two year period and found “a pattern of Israeli response that appears designed to evade responsibility.” In the past, Israel would often deny it was responsible or claim the journalist was tragically caught in the crossfire—an unfortunate consequence of “collateral damage.” Yet, since it began killing Palestinian journalists in Gaza on an unprecedented scale, Israel has increasingly admitted to killing journalists, justifying their murders afterwards by claiming they were not journalists at all. By backing up their claims with so-called evidence, which press watchdog groups like CPJ have found to not be credible and often outright preposterous, Israel has increasingly claimed that Palestinian journalists are militants.
Shabat’s killing entails a troubling new development to Israel’s approach: they preemptively accused him and five other journalists of being terrorists prior to attacking them, effectively putting them on a hit list.
Drop Site News reached out to four of the five surviving journalists on the list to ask them how Shabat’s murder affected them, and how they continue to report from Gaza under explicit threats by the Israeli military.
In what Al Jazeera said at the time was a deliberate attack by an Israeli drone strike north of Rafah in February 2024, the fifth surviving journalist on the list, Ismail Abu Omar, was wounded, along with photojournalist Ahmed Matar. Abu Omar’s right foot and some fingers on his right hand were amputated, and he was eventually evacuated outside of Gaza for treatment.
Drop Site was only able to compile these responses with the help of a journalist in Gaza who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety.
Read Hossam Shabat’s last article and Drop Site’s statement on his murder.
Continue to follow Hossam’s social media accounts on X and Instagram, where two of his close friends continue to post about Hossam and about developments in Gaza.
“We feel abandoned.”—Talal Al-Arouqi, 30, Al Jazeera Mubasher
Al-Arouqi was previously injured in an Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp in November 2024.
After the martyrdom of Hossam Shabat, I live in constant anxiety, feeling that the next airstrike will target me. What is truly shocking is the inability of the international community and human rights organizations to stop the incitement against us—the six journalists. We feel abandoned.
I feel unsafe, and I believe that all my fellow journalists outside the list feel unsafe, too. The Israeli army has killed more than 200 journalists without justification or prior warning. How can the Israeli army repeatedly target journalists without facing any consequences? Where is the international accountability?
Despite all the dangers around us, I am determined to continue my journalistic work. These risks have only strengthened my resolve to fulfill my media mission. I will not retreat from my duty to convey the facts, and amplify the voices of the oppressed to the world.
I want to say that, despite all of this, I carry a message, and no amount of incitement against me will stop me from continuing. I will keep practicing my work to deliver the truth to the world.
I will remain on this path, no matter the cost. I will not stop conveying the truth and raising Gaza’s voice to the world. If I am destined to die for this mission, I accept that, but I will never back down.
“This is my profession and my message.”—Alaa Salama, 36, Al Jazeera Mubasher
Salama is married with four children.
I was deeply shocked by the announcement of Hossam Shabat's assassination. This was a deliberate assassination. I am personally afraid. I felt that the assassination of a fellow journalist, who had been incited against [by the Israeli military], was the beginning of the assassination of the six journalists, including myself.
The Israeli occupation army is fabricating justifications to assassinate journalists, and the accusations of terrorism are completely false and baseless. We have done nothing but our professional, journalistic work, conveying the voice of our people to the world. Therefore, to stop us from being targeted, the international community and human rights organizations must take a stand.
The Israeli occupation army has killed more than 200 journalists without any justification. This is not limited to Hossam or the six journalists; it just kills journalists without any justification.
The assassination of Shabat did not prevent me from continuing my work. This is my profession and my message. I am taking some precautions after Shabat's targeting, by reducing my movements and activities, but I see no justification for stopping my work.
I feel it is my duty to continue my journalism, but to be honest with you, I fear being targeted. I have a family: I am married with four children. My parents fear for my life. They constantly urge me to stop working or to hide, but that won't stop me from continuing my work.
“I fear being assassinated before I get to see my first child.”—Ashraf Al-Saraj, 26, Al Jazeera Mubasher
Al-Sarraj—Al Jazeera Mubasher’s correspondent in central and southern Gaza—and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child next week.
When I heard the news of Hossam Shabat's assassination, I was deeply shocked. At that moment, I felt that I might be next on the list of journalists targeted for assassination. Hossam paid with his life for the truth.
Since the beginning of the war, Hossam had been documenting the occupation’s crimes against our people without fear or hesitation. I do the same, and there is no justification for the Israeli army's incitement against us, as we are merely fulfilling our journalistic duty.
I constantly live in a state of anxiety and fear that I might face the same fate as Hossam. I fear being assassinated before I get to see my first child, whom I am expecting in less than a week.
I call on all international and human rights organizations to provide us with protection as journalists, as our work is not a crime but a moral and humanitarian duty.
Despite all this, I will not retreat from my mission. There is no room for withdrawal or stopping. My work is a duty I cannot abandon, and these threats will not deter me from conveying the truth, no matter the cost. I will continue reporting with courage and responsibility.
“I will not, and will never, stop this coverage”—Anas Al-Sharif, 29, Al Jazeera Arabic
Al-Sharif reported receiving multiple calls from Israeli army officers in November 2023, ordering him to cease coverage and to leave northern Gaza. Less than three weeks later, his family home in the Jabaliya refugee camp was bombed, killing his 90-year-old father, Jamal al-Sharif. Like Shabat, al-Sharif never left northern Gaza. [Read Al-Sharif’s reflections in September 2024 on reporting from Gaza]
The news of Hossam Shabat's assassination was like a thunderbolt. Less than an hour before he was targeted, I was in contact with him, discussing coverage. He was my companion for a year and a half in the northern Gaza Strip, where we covered Israeli events and crimes together.
When Shabat was assassinated, I felt a deep sense of oppression, as if no one cared. Hossam Shabat felt that he was a targeted person, because he was on the list of six journalists, which also includes my name. His wish was that we continue our coverage no matter what, and we will do so.
Since the beginning of the war, I have personally faced several threats and assassination attempts by the Israeli army. I lost my father and several relatives as part of the efforts to force me to stop my news coverage.
I believe that continuing journalistic coverage is my responsibility and duty. Reporting the suffering of Gaza’s residents, and the victims of Israeli bombing, is my obligation, and the world must see what is happening to my people.
Despite the threats and danger, I will not, and will never, stop this coverage—until my last breath, because I am fighting for a just cause.
I am so moved by the messages of these journalists. In response I just want to say that I'm so sorry for the multiple losses of your friends and colleagues and for the loss of dear family as well. I pray for your safety and that God watches over you and your families. And I pray too that your incredible courage and devotion to truth inspires and awakens the courage to act on your behalf among the international seats of humanitarian power and the Countries where justice lives, as well as giving greater courage to all of us to stand up and speak up in whatever ways we can. Know that you are never alone. You are being held in the hearts of so many many people who love Gaza and Greater Palestine all around the world.🇵🇸
It is a picture of the fall of western humanity. It will just keeping falling.