Person of the Year 2024: Shrouq Al Aila and Palestinian Journalists
The sacrifices of journalists risking their lives to report on the events in Gaza must be acknowledged, and their safety must be guaranteed.
Since October 7, 2023, the US-backed Israeli terrorist regime has murdered more than 225 journalists in Gaza, more than the combined total of journalists killed throughout the entirety of World War II and the Vietnam War. The longest period of time Israel went without murdering a journalist in 2024 was just sixteen days.
One of the hundreds of journalists murdered by US-backed Israeli forces since October last year was Roshdi Sarraj, co-founder of independent media company Ain Media. Shrouq Al Aila, Sarraj’s wife, took charge of Ain Media following her husband’s death. Al Aila recently was honored with an International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
From the Committee to Protect Journalists: A Story of Survival
Shrouq Al Aila is a Palestinian journalist, producer, and researcher reporting from the Gaza Strip. Al Aila took charge of Ain Media, an independent production company specializing in professional media services, after her husband Roshdi Sarraj – a co-founder of the company – was killed in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. She continues to cover the war and its devastating impact on Gaza’s residents despite having been displaced several times in an effort to evade Israeli attacks.
Al Aila started working for Ain Media in 2019, later marrying Sarraj. On the morning of October 22, 2023, as the family was about to have breakfast at home, shrapnel from an Israeli missile attack on a nearby house killed Sarraj and injured Al Aila and their infant daughter.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have taken a record toll on Palestinian journalists, and Ain Media has suffered other losses. Early in the war, photographers Ibrahim Lafi was killed and Haitham Abdelwahid went missing along with a close journalist friend, Nidal Al-Wahidi. And in 2018, Sarraj’s founding partner at Ain Media, Yaser Murtaja, was murdered by an Israeli sniper.
Despite these tragedies and the conditions she continues to endure, Al Aila took on her late husband’s role to become the head of Ain Media, covering the war and displacement of Gaza’s residents. Her story is emblematic of the plight of Palestinian women journalists reporting from Gaza who have endured the unthinkable and continue to report the news for the world to see…
Al Aila’s story of survival honors the extraordinary courage and dedication of Palestinian journalists killed or arrested by Israeli authorities.
Shrouq Al Aila was unable to attend the awards ceremony. Leila Fadel, the presenter of the award, spoke on her behalf. The text of her speech, as prepared for delivery, is below:
I came here to present this award to Shrouq Al Aila tonight in person. But I can’t. Shrouq cannot leave the Gaza Strip. Israel has denied her permission to leave for Egypt. She is still scrambling to get the basic necessities of life amid the rubble with her child and trying to stay alive. And despite the dangers and hardship she is carrying on the work that her late husband began with Ain Media.
At least 129 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed over the past 13 months, and at least 74 journalists have been arrested.
With no outside news organizations allowed independent access to Gaza, and with many international organizations having pulled what local staff they could from Gaza, those able to report first hand on the war are increasingly few in number. In fact, it was Shrouq and her colleagues at Ain Media who filmed her and the Gaza footage we just saw.
Shrouq’s independent reporting is all the more essential because we, the international press, are not allowed in by Israel. Since she appeared in the video we just watched, Israel has intensified its attacks on journalists and media infrastructure as part of an offensive in the north of the Strip. The Israeli military says it is trying to stop Hamas fighters from regrouping there. The U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem have called the operation quote “ethnic cleansing.”
The U.N. Human Rights Office says it fears the onslaught could lead to the potential destruction of the Palestinian population.
Those in the north are faced with the choice of staying and starving or fleeing south with no guarantee of finding shelter or safety there either, according to UN officials.
CPJ has contended for many months, and the UN found last week, that Israel’s attacks on the media and media infrastructure, as well as its campaigns to discredit journalists, are a deliberate attempt to conceal what is happening in Gaza from the rest of the world.
For the moment, at least, Shrouq and a handful of Palestinian journalists, like my colleague Anas Baba at NPR, are hanging on to make sure that this censorship does not succeed. CPJ stands with Shrouq and will hold on to this award until she is able to come to New York to receive it in person. She and her colleagues must be protected. Thank you.
From Democracy Now: Shrouq Aila on Journalism, Life and Death in Gaza
“When this genocide started, I’ve been uprooted, along with my daughter and husband. We were in a work trip outside Gaza. And when it started, we immediately canceled everything and returned to Gaza, because my husband and I, we are both journalists, and we believe in that if you are a journalist, you are a journalist for life, and it is just a duty. You have to do it for your company, for your country, for your people, just to be on duty during such timing.
Yeah, I believe that we did not — nobody ever, like, imagined it would be as harsh as it is now. But I never regret this, because I believe that being here in Gaza means that I’m doing a change. Even this change is not pushing for a ceasefire, but at least people are getting more aware about our suffering and our cause here in the Gaza Strip.
And there is also the other point of this, that it’s been like almost seven months of the closure of the Rafah crossing border, which is the only gate out of Gaza, that is just connected by the Egyptian authorities. This gate is just closed — this border just closed once in May, once the Israeli army launched their military ground operation to Rafah crossing border and area, as well, and causing the damage of this border. So, I can say, like, we are all trapped here, no way out, just the sky. You die, and you fly the sky. This is the only way out of Gaza nowadays.”
From Al-Jazeera: Palestinian Journalists Killed by Israel in Gaza
As the conflict in Gaza enters its 15th month, more than 45,400 people have been killed and 108,000 injured. The war has been particularly marked by the challenges of reporting from a warzone in effect sealed off to reporters from outside Gaza, where reporting has been impossible at times — and far too often, deadly.
Despite these challenges, Palestinian journalists have continued to report the horrors of the war, serving as the world’s eyes and ears during one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century.
From October 7, 2023, to December 25, 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza. Five more were killed on December 26 when an Israeli air strike targeted a news van near al-Awda Hospital. These most recent killings of journalists underscore the perilous environment in which media professionals are operating in Gaza. Simply put, this has been the worst conflict for journalists — ever.
The following list is a tribute to the journalists and media workers who have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, arranged by the dates of their deaths.
From Al-Jazeera: Israel is Deliberately Targeting Journalists in Gaza
With the death rate of reporters so high, researchers who monitor the issue told Al Jazeera that they have come to believe Israel is intentionally killing journalists and media workers, in addition to destroying Gaza’s media infrastructure.
One of these people was the co-founder of the media outlet Ain Media.
In October 2023, he communicated with Forensic Architecture, a research group investigating state violence and human rights violations, to look into the disappearances of a number of his colleagues.
Al Jazeera asked to speak with the co-founder of Ain Media, but a program manager at Forensic Architecture replied, saying he had been “killed in an Israeli air strike several months ago at his home in a targeted attack.”
From the Committee to Protect Journalists: The Deadliest Year for Journalists
As of January 2, 2025, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 146 journalists and media workers were among the more than tens of thousands killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, famine, the displacement of 90% of Gaza’s population, and the destruction of 80% of its buildings. CPJ is investigating more than 130 additional cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries, but many are difficult to document amid these harsh conditions.
“Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna in New York. “Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”
Journalists are civilians and are protected by International Law. Deliberately targeting civilians constitutes a war crime. In May, the International Criminal Court announced it was seeking arrest warrant applications for Hamas and Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
From Gaza Notifications: Journalists Under Attack
According to recent reports, 201 journalists have been killed, 339 wounded, and 42 abducted by Israeli forces since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. These figures highlight the extreme dangers faced by media workers covering the atrocities and the deliberate efforts to block the flow of information from the region.
The attacks on journalists constitute a clear violation of international law. The rules ensuring the protection of media professionals in conflict zones have been blatantly ignored during this process. Such assaults are a direct attack on press freedom and the public’s right to know the truth.
Press organizations and human rights defenders worldwide have strongly condemned the targeting of journalists, calling for accountability. They urge the international community to act immediately to protect journalists and bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
The sacrifices of journalists risking their lives to report on the events in Gaza must be acknowledged, and their safety must be guaranteed.
From Middle East Eye: Israel Kills Journalists in Clearly Marked Press Vehicle
An Israeli air strike killed five Palestinian journalists in a clearly marked vehicle outside a hospital in central Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities and multiple media reports.
The journalists from Al-Quds Today were outside al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp when their van was struck by an Israeli strike on Thursday morning. Images from the scene show a white-coloured van with the word "press" clearly written in large red letters, engulfed in flames.
"The van was entirely burnt and destroyed. It was fully engulfed in flames," Middle East Eye's reporter Hani Aburezeq said from the scene.
The slain journalists were Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.
From Dr. Omar Suleiman: Another Day, Another Journalist Murdered
Another day, another journalist murdered by Israeli terrorism. His name was Hassan Al-Qishawi. We will NEVER ever forget Western mainstream media’s silence as journalists and civilians are murdered wholesale. We will NEVER ever forget its complicity in covering up Israel’s war crimes.
From CODEPINK, Caitlin Johnstone: Israel Hates Truth
Israel hates truth. It kills Palestinian journalists in Gaza for the same reason it keeps western journalists out of Gaza: The more the world sees what's happening there, the less the world supports Israel.