Israel Kills Teen Journalist in Gaza After Dire Threat: “We’ll Come for You Next”

Global journalists voiced condemnation on Monday following the killing of a young Palestinian reporter by the Israeli military, who continued to document the devastation in Gaza despite receiving threats to his life. There was a notable lack of coverage from Western media on the incident.

19-year-old Hassan Hamad, whose reporting was featured on Al Jazeera and other media platforms, died in a drone attack by Israel on his residence within the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to The Palestine Chronicle. Prior to the attack, Hamad had received multiple text messages warning him to cease capturing footage of the Israeli attacks on Gaza. These attacks have resulted in nearly 150,000 Palestinian casualties and are currently under scrutiny for possible genocide at the International Court of Justice, with Israel being a significant ally of the United States.

Maha Hussaini, a fellow Palestinian journalist, shared an image of one such threatening message sent to Hamad via WhatsApp. It stated, “Listen, if you keep spreading lies about Israel, we’ll come for you next and turn your family into… This is your last warning.”

Hussaini reported that Hamad also received “multiple calls from an Israeli officer who demanded he stop filming in Gaza.”

“He did not comply,” she stated. “He was killed today.”

A colleague of Hamad’s expressed his grief on Hamad’s X account:

With profound sorrow, I grieve the loss of journalist Hassan Hamad… Hamad, not even 20 years old, fought in his unique way for an entire year. He stayed away from his family to avoid them being targeted. He struggled to find a reliable internet connection, often sitting on his rooftop for hours to send videos that you receive in seconds. Yesterday, from 10:00 am, he navigated bombed locations, seeking signals, then returning to document the aftermath. Despite a leg injury, he persisted in filming. At 6:00 am, he called me to send the final video. After a brief call, he said, ‘Hey, hey, it’s done,’ and hung up. This is a pain no one should bear. Hassan also resisted the occupation, leaving a legacy and a message for us to continue.

Journalists and others have shared disturbing footage of Hamad’s remains being collected and placed into a shoebox.

“I will never forget the media industry’s silence on this,” Al Jazeera executive producer Laila Al-Arian commented in a post accompanying the video.

Thomson Reuters Foundation’s deputy editor-in-chief, Barry Malone, questioned other journalists’ silence on Hassan’s death, asking, “If you’re a journalist and you’re not speaking out in solidarity… why?”

Anthropology professor Jason Hickel remarked, “We can never unsee the images of journalist Hassan Hamad’s remains, after he was killed by Israeli forces.”

“Western journalists and editors should hang their heads in shame for their silence on these atrocities,” he further added.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), based in New York, stated that “at least 128 journalists and media workers, all but five of them Palestinian, have been killed—more journalists than in any other year since CPJ began recording such deaths in 1992.”

“Except for two Israeli journalists killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, all were killed by Israeli forces,” the group noted. “CPJ found that at least five journalists were explicitly targeted by Israel for their journalism.”

According to the Gaza Government Media Office (GMO), 175 media workers have lost their lives in Gaza over the past year.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has lodged several complaints at the International Criminal Court, where the chief prosecutor is pursuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and leaders of Hamas, accusing them of “war crimes against journalists in Gaza.”

In response to Hamad’s killing, RSF declared, “Israel’s impunity must end.”