A journalist’s life lost while reporting from Gaza, highlighting the extreme dangers faced by local media workers in conflict zones
Islam Abed, 36, worked with Quds Today TV as a reporter and editor. A graduate in journalism and media from the Islamic University of Gaza, she had six years of experience and focused mainly on humanitarian stories: displacement, civilian casualties, and the conditions of those suffering from the conflict.
The Islamic University of Gaza is one of the leading higher education institutions in the Palestinian territories. Its Faculty of Media and Journalism trains students in reporting, media production, and communication, emphasizing both professional skills and ethical responsibility in a highly challenging environment. Many of its graduates, like Abed, go on to work in local media outlets, often under difficult and dangerous circumstances, documenting life in Gaza.
Quds Today TV, based in Gaza, is a local news channel that has been operating since 2014. It provides coverage of political, social, and humanitarian issues in the Palestinian territories and is known for reporting on events from Gaza’s perspective. The channel employs journalists who often work under extremely dangerous conditions to document life in the conflict zone.
On August 31, 2025, an Israeli drone struck the apartment building where she was staying, in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. She had gone there to visit displaced relatives. The attack, which occurred around 7:20 p.m., killed her, her husband, one of her children, and her husband’s brother. Her two other children were injured. Just days before, she had filed a report from Al-Wafa Hospital, documenting the collapse of the health system. On the day of her death, she had told her family she would return home to prepare her youngest son for his first day of school.
Her killing is part of a long list of Palestinian journalists who have died in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023. According to press freedom organizations, nearly two hundred media workers have been killed since then, the vast majority of them Palestinian. Some were killed in airstrikes, others in targeted drone attacks. Many were forced to work in impossible conditions, unable to leave the Strip and with their families alongside them.
International law recognizes journalists as civilians and prohibits direct attacks on them, but in practice, protection is almost nonexistent. Their work, however, remains indispensable: without their reporting, the world would have no direct access to the daily reality of Gaza.
The story of Islam Abed is a reminder that behind every number there are personal stories, interrupted lives, destroyed families. And that the role of journalists—too often paid for with their lives—is to give voice to those who no longer have one.
