The Electronic Intifada 9 May 2025
A demonstrator holds a poster of Hossam Shabat during a rally in front of the offices of The New York Times in Manhattan on 27 March.
ZUMA PressOn 24 March, the Israeli military assassinated Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat by targeting his vehicle in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.
Mohammad Mansour, a reporter for Palestine Today, was killed in a separate incident on the same day as the prominent Al Jazeera correspondent.
Their deaths added to the still-growing count of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza, where at least 214 media workers have lost their lives since October 2023, according to the Government Media Office in the territory.
Months before killing him, Israel accused Shabat and five other journalists working for Al Jazeera of having ties to the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, labeling them as “terrorists.”
The Israeli military – an institution with a long track record of fabrication and lying – published documents purportedly showing Shabat’s registration with Hamas’ armed wing.
Shabat said the accusations were part of an incitement campaign that included death threats and coordinated online harassment.
He described the allegations as an attempt to justify the assassination of journalists preemptively.
Targeting truthtellers
As an investigative journalist, I relied on Shabat for accurate, real-time reporting, especially when major media outlets were absent or slow to cover the unfolding atrocities.
Shabat refused to leave northern Gaza even after it was all but cut off from the rest of the world and amid looming famine and constant bombardment.
He remained steadfast, documenting the impact of Israeli airstrikes, giving voice to victims and ensuring their suffering was not buried beneath silence or spin.
He rushed to massacre sites to gather testimonies, documented field executions and exposed the human cost of war.
After I left Gaza in February 2024, I turned to Shabat’s social media for updates about the latest developments in Gaza. His reports were my window to the escalating horrors on the ground.
For him, journalism was more than a profession; it was a moral duty to his people, his homeland and the truth that so many would prefer to ignore.
In September last year, I was investigating the aftermath of the Israeli massacre at UNRWA’s Zeitoun School in Gaza City. The Israeli military said it had launched a “precise strike” on a Hamas command and control center and claimed it had taken multiple steps to avoid harming civilians.
But the reality was far different: 22 people were killed and 30 injured, mostly women and children sheltering at the facility, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
I interviewed Shabat, one of the first on the scene. He was quick to debunk the Israeli claims, answering all my questions thoroughly.
He shared haunting images of grieving families and scattered remains, including the severed foot of a child, as well as a photo of an unborn fetus killed with her mother and sister.
Shabat did not just report the aftermath of the massacre; he helped unravel the propaganda used to justify it.
His documentation provided a powerful counter-narrative to Israeli claims issued after attacks to justify the deaths of civilians, exposing what official statements tried to obscure.
As he once affirmed: “Despite the serious and false threats against us, we remain committed to our profession and will continue to report the facts on the ground where genocide unfortunately continues unabated.”
Shabat remained an essential source in exposing massacres in northern Gaza, tirelessly challenging Israeli propaganda with facts from the ground.
His refusal to abandon the north and his duty to report on the truth made him a target.
Israeli hasbara
Fact-checking Israeli propaganda against Hossam Shabat has been an exhausting task.
After relying on him as a trusted source in northern Gaza, I found myself debunking the disinformation tactics the Israeli military and online trolls use to justify the murder of journalists in Gaza.
The absurdity is staggering. Despite the Israeli military’s official acknowledgment that it killed Shabat, some of Israel’s apologists deny his death, claiming it was staged.
Another allegation made against Shabat after his execution is so outlandish that it would hardly warrant fact-checking except for how widely it circulated.
In a post on X that has had hundreds of thousands of views, the poster – apparently an Israeli soldier – claims that Shabat attempted to kill him with a sniper rifle “at least twice.”
What are the chances of the same sniper targeting the same person twice in a war zone? And how could the Israeli soldier possibly identify Shabat as the sniper?
Despite the glaring contradictions, and Israel’s pattern of fabricating claims against Palestinians, many continue to accept these claims without question.
These baseless narratives reflect a broader pattern by which Israel and its apologists attempt to normalize the now routine execution of journalists by framing them as combatants.
While denying international journalists access to Gaza, Israel is silencing the messengers of truth about the genocide.
Legacy
Hossam Shabat was more than just a reliable news source. He was an inspiration to aspiring journalists, despite his young age of 23.
Maisam Al-Masri, a 14-year-old girl from Gaza, once enthusiastically told Shabat that she wanted to become a journalist just like him. A heartbreaking video shows her mourning his assassination.
In the wake of his death, Maisam vowed “to carry on Hossam’s message to the world.”
His killing sparked outrage and condemnation, with tributes pouring in from Gaza and beyond. He has become an icon at pro-Palestine protests, where demonstrators held up his portrait among those of other prominent martyrs and demanded justice.
Amid the Western media’s silence on the killings of Palestinian journalists and its amplification of Israeli narratives, activists gathered outside the offices of The New York Times to raise Shabat’s photo and condemn the outlet for its pro-Israel bias.
Final message
With few others reporting from the area, Shabat risked everything to document Israel’s intense siege on northern Gaza beginning in October last year, ensuring the world saw the harsh reality on the ground.
In his final message, written in anticipation of his own murder, he reaffirmed his unwavering dedication to the truth.
“I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest – something I have not known in the past 18 months,” he wrote.
His final plea was simple and urgent: “I ask you now: Do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free.”
Wesam Abo Marq is a fact-checker from Gaza working for Misbar and a freelance writer for the Palestinian Return Center in London.
