In yet another crime as part of the ongoing genocide targeting journalists and unarmed civilians since October 2023, Palestinian journalist Walaa Al-Jaabari was killed on Wednesday along with several of her children in an Israeli airstrike that hit the home of Dr. Hassan Al-Shaer in Tel Al-Hawa, southwest of Gaza City.
The bombing resulted in the deaths of Walaa Al-Jaabari, her unborn child, and seven other members of the family, including some of her children. The house was sheltering displaced people and members of Dr. Al-Shaer’s family, though he was not present at the time of the strike.
Walaa Al-Jaabari was a prominent media voice who continued to report on the suffering of Gaza’s population under siege and bombardment, despite the hardships of displacement and starvation.
She worked with several local media outlets, including the Gaza-based “Al-Rai” radio station. On her personal Facebook page, she published reports and posts that highlighted the catastrophic living conditions caused by deliberate starvation and widespread destruction.
Her killing is part of a systematic policy by the Israeli occupation to target Palestinian journalists, whether through direct assassinations or by bombing their homes, in a clear attempt to silence those documenting the war crimes and acts of genocide in Gaza.
Just days earlier, photojournalist Tamer Al-Zaanin was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while covering the abduction of Dr. Marwan Al-Hams in Khan Younis.
With the deaths of Al-Jaabari and Al-Zaanin, the number of journalists killed in Gaza has now reached 231 since the war began, making it one of the deadliest periods for the press in modern history.
For over nine months, the occupation authorities have been carrying out systematic crimes against Palestinian civilians, including mass killings, starvation, attacks on medical, humanitarian and media personnel, the destruction of infrastructure, the blocking of aid, and the forced displacement of residents.
The crime is not only in the scale of killing and destruction; it extends to the complicit silence of many governments and institutions, which contributes to the entrenched culture of impunity and paves the way for further atrocities against civilians, including journalists.
The killing of Walaa Al-Jaabari and her children was not an isolated incident, it is part of a long series of attacks targeting those who speak out or shed light on the situation inside Gaza. This occurs in parallel with a collective starvation policy that has taken the lives of dozens of children and denied thousands of patients access to treatment due to border closures.
The killing of a journalist who wrote about hunger, through an airstrike that killed her, her unborn child, and her children, is a stark embodiment of the brutal reality imposed by the occupation. It is a clear message that those living in Gaza are not only targets for bombs, but also for silencing, erasure, and oblivion.
