'Everything Is Being Crushed': Journalist Hossam Shabat's Last Story Before He Was Killed by Israel
"His ability to cover one of the most brutal military campaigns in recent history was almost beyond comprehension," said a colleague of Hossam Shabat.
Colleagues of Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat on Monday posted the Palestinian reporter's own words on social media after he was killed in what was reportedly a targeted attack by U.S.-backed Israeli forces in northern Gaza.
"If you're reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces," said Shabat in the statement before his death. "When this all began, I was only 21 years old—a college student with dreams like anyone else. For past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury."
Shabat had been reporting for Al Jazeera Mubasher on the Israeli assault on Gaza that began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, documenting the destruction of northern Gaza and the impact of Israel's blockade and attacks on the people there.
Witnesses told Al Jazeera that Shabat's car had been targeted in Beit Lahiya, and his colleague at the network, Tareq Abu Azzoum, reported the Israeli forces carried out the strike without "any prior warning."
Also on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed Palestine Today journalist Mohammad Mansour, as well as his wife and son. They were killed in their home in Khan Younis, Abu Azzoum reported.
Mansour and Shabat's deaths bring the number of journalists who have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza to 208, according toMiddle East Eye.
British journalist Owen Jones said Shabat's work "was instrumental in understanding the depravity of Israel's genocide. That's why Israel killed him."
The Committee to Protect Journalists called for an independent investigation into whether Shabat and Mansour were deliberately targeted.
"The deliberate and targeted killing of a journalist, of a civilian, is a war crime," Jodie Ginsberg, the group's chief executive, told Al Jazeera.
Drop Site News, where Shabat was a contributing reporter on the bombardment of Gaza, said it "holds Israel and the U.S. responsible for killing Hossam."
In October 2024, the Israel Defense Forces included Shabat and five other Palestinian reporters on a hit list, according to Drop Site.
"Hossam regularly received death threats by call and text," said the outlet. "What we have witnessed for nearly a year and a half is the Israeli military engaging in a systematic campaign to kill Palestinian journalists, as well as members of their families."
Shabat had filed a story for Drop Site just hours before he was killed about "Israel's resumption of its scorched-earth bombing of Gaza last week that killed over 400 people, including nearly 200 children in a matter of hours."
As Drop Sitepublished Shabat's final dispatch, journalist and editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous wrote that he "was one of a handful of reporters who remained in northern Gaza through Israel's genocidal war."
"His ability to cover one of the most brutal military campaigns in recent history was almost beyond comprehension," wrote Kouddous. "He bore witness to untold death and suffering on an almost daily basis for 17 months. He was displaced over 20 times. He was often hungry. He buried many of his journalist colleagues. In November, he was wounded in an Israeli airstrike. I still can't believe I am referring to him in the past tense. Israel obliterates the present."
In his final article, Shabat wrote about the attacks on numerous families in northern Gaza as Israel resumed its assault, abandoning a cease-fire that took effect in January:
Screams filled the air while everyone stood helpless. My tears didn't stop. The scenes were more than any human being could bear. The ambulances were filled with corpses, their bodies and limbs piled on top and intertwined with one another. We could no longer distinguish between children and men, between the injured and the dead.
At Al-Andalus Hospital the scene was even more painful. The hospital was filled with martyrs. Mothers bid silent farewells to their children. Medical staff worked in horrific conditions, trying to treat the injured with only the most basic means available. It was an impossible situation with massive numbers of dead and wounded being brought in at a terrifying rate.
Israel's aggression continues. Massacre after massacre, leaving only the screams of mothers in its wake and the dreams of children that have turned to ash. There is no justification for this. Everything is being crushed: the lives of innocent people, their dignity, and their hopes for a better future.
Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of Drop Site, posted on social media a video of Shabat talking with a Palestinian girl about her goal of becoming a journalist.
Shabat concluded his final message to readers by saying he continued covering the assault on northern Gaza "because I believe in the Palestinian cause."
"I ask you now: Do not stop speaking about Gaza," wrote Shabat. "Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free."
