Coverage turns fatal: reporters lose their lives documenting the impact of airstrikes in Gaza
On August 25, 2025, a double Israeli airstrike hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least twenty people, including five Palestinian journalists.
Other media workers were injured: Jamal Baddah of Palestine Today TV, Reuters photographer Hatem Khaled, and freelance journalist Mohammed Fayeq.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), these killings bring the total number of reporters and media personnel killed in the war to at least 197, including 189 Palestinians. “Israel killed at least five journalists at Nasser Hospital on Monday morning. The deliberate killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly in the face of the most egregious attacks on the press in recent years. These killings must stop now. Those responsible must no longer be allowed to act with impunity,” said CPJ regional director Sara Qudah.
A live Reuters video from the hospital abruptly cut off at the exact moment of the first attack. Israel has not provided a consistent account of the events. The newspaper Israel Hayom cited a security source claiming that the target was a camera on the hospital roof used by Hamas to document the movements of the armed forces. The attempt to neutralize the camera then escalated into a broader strike.
The IDF did not immediately respond to CPJ requests for comment, but military spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated that Chief of Staff General Eyal Zamir had ordered an investigation into the incident. He added, “The IDF expresses regret for any injury to uninvolved personnel. It does not target journalists as such and works as much as possible to minimize harm while continuing to ensure the safety of its forces.”
The attack on Nasser Hospital remains one of the most severe and controversial episodes of the war, not only due to the number of casualties but also because of the direct blow to press freedom and the right to witness events in a territory increasingly isolated from the rest of the world.
Biographies of the journalists killed:
- Hussam al-Masri, a Reuters contributor, born in Khan Yunis, known for reporting from the heart of the Gaza conflict. He often broadcast live from the field and documented daily life under siege.
- Mohammed Salama, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, began his career as a freelance television journalist before joining the network. He was known for telling stories of resilience in conflict zones, often risking his life to show the reality.
- Mariam Abu Dagga, 33, a freelance photojournalist for Associated Press and Independent Arabia. She was renowned for powerful images of civilian life during attacks, always emphasizing the dignity of those portrayed.
- Ahmed Abu Aziz, a contributor to Quds Feed, recognized for reporting on conditions in refugee camps and daily life in Gaza under bombardment. He was respected for his ability to convey complex stories clearly and sensitively.
- Moaz Abu Taha, a video reporter and documentary filmmaker on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He aimed to give visibility to often-invisible stories of civilians, bravely facing the dangers of war.
Against this systematic erasure, art has become a counterweight. Italian artist and activist Gianluca Costantini has dedicated himself to creating a visual memorial for the journalists killed in Gaza. Since the beginning of the war, he has drawn dozens of portraits in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists. These works were first exhibited in Bologna in the show “In the Crosshairs of Memory,” which presented around eighty digital portraits and large-scale drawings on paper. Each portrait seeks not only to preserve a face but also to restore a story, offering a gesture of care and remembrance in the face of silence.
Costantini’s portraits have not remained confined to gallery walls. They have been carried in protests and vigils across cities such as New York, Berlin, Naples, and Seattle, projected in festivals and human rights events, and shared widely across social platforms. His work has become part of a collective ritual of remembrance, one that insists on giving identity and dignity back to those who were silenced.
For two decades, Costantini has used his art to engage with struggles for human rights: from the uprisings in Egypt, Istanbul, and Hong Kong, to the personal story of Patrick Zaki. His work on Gaza extends this trajectory, confronting the violence of erasure with the persistence of memory.
In the midst of a war where information itself is weaponized, Costantini’s drawings stand as acts of resistance. Each face testifies to the courage of those who reported, and each line of ink pushes back against the machinery of propaganda. Where the state attempts to obscure, the artist restores. Where lives are reduced to statistics, he rehumanizes them. And in doing so, his portraits become more than images: they are monuments of truth.
