Killed on his 26th birthday, Haniyeh’s story reflects both the personal cost of war and the broader crisis facing journalists in Gaza
Ayman Haniyeh was a young Palestinian broadcast engineer who worked for Al-Manara TV Production Company, providing services for the Al-Alam channel. On September 2, 2025, he was killed by an Israeli drone in Gaza City, just minutes before returning home to celebrate his 26th birthday. He had just finished a live broadcast and left the company’s offices to reach his family in Tel al-Hawa, where displaced relatives had taken refuge after their homes were destroyed. A drone struck him close to home: he died instantly.
Al-Manara TV Production Company is a Gaza -based production company that provides technical and broadcasting support to various local and regional TV stations, including Al-Alam. Founded to offer live coverage and broadcasting services, it has continued to operate despite enormous difficulties caused by the conflict, with its infrastructure damaged by bombings and staff forced to work under life-threatening conditions. For many young professionals, like Haniyeh, it represented one of the few opportunities to put technical skills to use and to contribute to keeping the flow of information from Gaza alive for the outside world.
Haniyeh had recently graduated in electrical and communications engineering and had begun working as a broadcast engineer with great enthusiasm, hoping to contribute his skills in a context devastated by war. His death represents not only the loss of a young life but also the silencing of a voice that was building a future in the media world.
His killing is part of a broader tragedy. Over the past two years, the Gaza Strip has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Since October 2023, when the latest phase of the war between Israel and Hamas erupted, nearly two hundred journalists and media workers have been killed, the vast majority of them Palestinian. Many died in airstrikes or targeted drone attacks; others saw their homes and newsrooms destroyed, forced to keep working without protection and with their families constantly at risk.
Each journalist killed is not only a casualty of war but also a collective loss: their death means the interruption of stories yet to be told, the extinguishing of a voice bearing witness to daily life under siege. International law recognizes journalists as civilians and prohibits intentional attacks on them, yet on the ground these protections are almost nonexistent.
The story of Ayman Haniyeh tells much more than a single fate. It reflects the story of an entire generation that, despite danger, chooses to keep documenting, narrating, and believing that giving voice to others is a necessary act. With every name added to the growing list of the dead, a stark reminder emerges: without journalists, truth dies with them.
