By Committee To Protect Journalists
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
New York-based Hoda Osman has spent the past six months helping Gaza journalists replace cameras, laptops, and phones lost or damaged in the Israel-Gaza war. More than 5,500 miles away, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Wafa’ Abdel Rahman coordinates humanitarian supplies and cash assistance for reporters under Israeli bombardment, while Rania Khayyat, also in Ramallah, is in constant contact with dozens of Gaza journalists to understand their needs.
Osman, executive editor of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Khayyat, communications officer at the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, and Rahman, the founder and director of the women- and youth-focused Palestinian NGO Filastiniyat, are committed to helping these journalists survive and continue to report. Collectively, they have provided aid to hundreds of journalists on the ground. (CPJ recently supported these three groups with a $300,000 grant in emergency funds.)
CPJ’s Lucy Westcott spoke with Osman, Rahman, and Khayyat about the day-to-day reality for journalists in Gaza and the challenges with providing aid in wartime.
“The day-to-day includes a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability,” said Osman. “They have a home today, they might not have a home tomorrow. They have their family members with them today, they might lose them tomorrow. They themselves are alive today, they might be injured or killed tomorrow.”
“They really expect to die daily,” said Khayyat. “Every time you call them, they always tell us the same sentence, it may be their ‘last call’.”
More on the Israel-Gaza war:
–CPJ, partners urge UN to release full report on Issam Abdallah’s Murder
