After the ceasefire, what will it take to rebuild Gaza?

After the ceasefire, what will it take to rebuild Gaza?

By Robert Tollast, Nada AlTaher and Khaled Yacoub Oweis, The National, 16 January 20125

Israel's war on the devastated enclave has lasted 15 months, leaving a mammoth challenge of reconstruction ahead

For 15 months, Palestinians in Gaza have desperately prayed for an end to the war with Israel that has killed tens of thousands of people, levelled entire neighbourhoods and eradicated their way of life as they knew it.

On January 15, the promise of silent skies came with the announcement of a temporary ceasefire set to begin on January 19 and last six weeks.

But as guns fall silent, what awaits the millions of Gazans without access to clean water, food and electricity who have been living through one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters?

A report released by the World Bank last April – nine months before the ceasefire was called – estimated about $18.5 billion will be needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip. It said that estimate would likely rise because assessments still needed to be made in the enclave.

In January 2025, the UN said almost 70 per cent of all structures in the strip, including nine in 10 homes, had been destroyed or damaged.

Of Gaza’s 2.3m population, more than 1.9m have been displaced, with hundreds of thousands living in makeshift tents, barely providing shelter from the weather.

The World Health Organisation said in January that rebuilding Gaza's health system would require around $10bn over the next five to seven years.

Experts say prioritising so many sectors at once amounts to "starting from zero". For example, a country that loses an entire city in an earthquake might still have another city nearby with hospitals and emergency workers ready to assist.

But that is not the case in Gaza. That presents a challenge of “mammoth” complexity, diplomats and reconstruction experts told The National.

They said past reconstruction efforts in Gaza, Iraq and Indonesia – which was hit by a massive tsunami in 2004 – hint at the task ahead. But it is impossible to imagine the scale of destruction.

“Look at Warsaw post Second World War," said Dana Erekat, who worked on a detailed assessment of Gaza’s reconstruction in 2014, after a 50-day war that killed about 2,250 Palestinians. "It took 10 years to rebuild, even with relatively open access for reconstruction work. If you look at Berlin, there are still remnants of the divide between the East and the West.”

Experts warn conflicting plans for a postwar Gaza and a growing disagreement on the role of the UN could leave the enclave’s population languishing in misery for years. The World Bank said last year that at least one million Palestinians would not be able to return home due to the destruction.

*Another version of this story was first published in April 2024, nine months before the ceasefire was reached.

Stability then major funding needed

Gerald Feierstein, former US ambassador to Yemen under Barack Obama and a distinguished senior fellow on US diplomacy at the Middle East Institute, told The National in April it was “too late” for reconstruction to take place in Gaza in 2024.

“First thing you need is some kind of stability,” he said. "You need governance, you need security and we're not at the point yet where there is an agreement and who's going to do all of that and how it's going to be accomplished."

An international partnership to raise tens of billions of dollars to rebuild the devastated strip will need to be formed and complex political questions resolved, which could delay vital projects.

“I think there should be an opportunity for the international community to come together in the same way they did after the First Gulf War in 1991-1992, when we organised the Madrid Conference and created a kind of international coalition and network to work on many of these issues. And I think we need to do that again,” Mr Feierstein said.

A multinational coalition to bring aid to Gaza by sea from Cyprus and build a rudimentary pier for deliveries took months to get off the ground, underlining the challenges much bigger projects could entail.

Those projects, including power stations to provide electricity to pump clean water and treat sewage, restoring collapsed banks to pay salaries and rebuilding health care for hundreds of thousands of wounded and sick, face challenges at the first hurdle.

These include thorny political issues, including who will run a postwar Gaza and disturbing developments such as the Israeli army’s creation of buffer zones on Gaza’s borders, “free fire” zones where anything moving is shot and a dividing line across Gaza.

But there are also more fundamental problems: Israel’s desire to replace UNWRA, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians, with an entirely new organisation.

Israel’s “smearing” of UNRWA’s reputation poses an additional problem because it has been the main non-governmental provider of services in Gaza, Mr Feierstein said.

Israel accused UNRWA members of being part of the Hamas-led operation in Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people. A number of major donors withdrew, stopped or said they would not renew their funding to the UN body.

After Israel’s failure to provide strong evidence to support its claim, some donors announced plans to resume their commitments.

Israel’s plan to dismantle and replace UNRWA with a new aid organisation would be immensely complex, overturning years of how the agency has operated in the enclave, channelling about 80 per cent of Gaza aid funds to projects.

UNWRA, for example, ran schools for about 300,000 Gazan children before the current war broke out. At least 56 schools have since been destroyed and 219 damaged, the World Bank said.

Another hurdle at the time was the potential change of leadership in the US, with President Joe Biden’s facing Donald Trump at the polls in November. Mr Trump is notoriously more hawkish against Palestinians, having moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and blocked support to UNRWA during his presidency. Mr Trump won the election and is inaugurated as President on January 20.

“All of these things are extremely complicated. The reality is, it's already too late in 2024 to really do very much,” Mr Feierstein said. “It’s a disaster and what is going to probably take years and years and years to really get it back.”

Political hurdles within and outside of Gaza could stall even the most basic needs to improve lives, even before dangerous tasks such as removing unexploded bombs begins.

Pressing needs include the construction of permanent port facilities for Gaza, which are required to bring in hundreds of thousands or even millions of tonnes of reconstruction material.

Other questions could emerge over the location of postwar administration buildings after Israeli forces levelled some, while others have been gutted by fighting, taking civic records with them. Without those records, everything from distributing salaries and food rations to hiring staff becomes more complicated.

“The Palestinian civic registration is directly linked with Israelis through Cogat – the co-ordinating office governing Palestinian territories – including every single ID number that exists, whether in the West Bank or Gaza, so there are backups, but not in the possession of the Palestinians,” said Ms Erekat.

If records are destroyed or lost by Palestinians, who have fled their homes many times, finding them again could prove a bureaucratic nightmare.

At least 100 government buildings in Gaza were destroyed by April 2024, leaving reconstruction teams and a new administration in the enclave without a base to urgently reform ministries.

Gary Grappo, former head of mission for the Office of the Quartet Representative in Jerusalem, a grouping of the UN, EU, US and Russia that works on the Palestine-Israel peace process, said: “It really is almost starting from zero.

"You end up standing up some kind of interim government, where are they going to sit? There are some buildings left, are those government buildings? Maybe a few, but not many. Are they operable? Probably not. Do they have power? Very likely not."

Mr Grappo compared what will be needed in Gaza to the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which required a major multinational effort to quickly bring in aid, including US efforts due to America’s logistical capabilities. He highlighted a temporary port being built in Gaza by the US army that could become a foothold for a larger multinational aid effort.

But the minimum humanitarian aid alone will be a vast challenge even before rebuilding.

“It’s a mammoth logistics operation, requiring enormous amounts of money,” said Mr Grappo, who was also ambassador to Oman and minister counsellor for political affairs at the American embassy in Baghdad. "And that's before people start doing the brick and mortar stuff. And that's going to be the big conversation.

"So, you've assembled this interim governing authority and security force. And then, as that's being done, the debate over the longer-term problem of rebuilding Gaza – housing, power, water, sanitation, health, education – and then staffing all of this and getting the requisite people in the right places who have the required expertise and knowledge to do this kind of work.

“I think if it's done correctly, and that's a big if, you can put a lot of Gazans to work. But then how do you pay these folks? Is it going to be cash? Is it going to some kind of a certificate system, which allows them to buy the goods they need to survive? How about all the temporary housing that's going to be required for these folks? It's just a mammoth undertaking.”

Mr Grappo worries, however, that security problems could persist long after major fighting dies down, leading to potential challengers to any interim administration.

Egyptian officials in March 2024 told The National an interim government in Gaza might be protected by “militias”, based on a briefing of an Israeli plan, raising fears of security chaos that plagued post-invasion Iraq or post-invasion Libya.

Israeli control over reconstruction

The last time Gaza faced a conflict anything close to the current war was in 2014 when, according to estimates at the time, at least $4.5 billion in damage was done to the enclave, compared to the current $18.5 billion assessment now.

In the immediate six years after that conflict, about six million tonnes of material entered the strip as part of rehabilitation efforts. Now devastation is far greater and Israel has shown an even deeper reluctance to let in aid.

Reconstruction after 2014 showed how slowly international bureaucracy can move, with disbursal of promised donor funding proving painfully slow.

“By December 2016, so three years after the war, only 50 per cent of the $3.5 billion earmarked for reconstruction had actually been disbursed. They’d dispersed only $670 million, or 17 per cent, of the recovery needs allocated to finance priority needs,” said Ms Erekat.

“When we talk about 50 per cent of funds disbursed in three years, we’re talking about the first level of disbursement, money transferred from the donor’s budget."

One major reason for the slow response was the Israel-led Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, she said.

“A lot of the delay was due to the GRM, which was set up to be a triparty mechanism, co-ordinating between the Israelis, the UN, the World Bank and the Palestinian Authority. But at the end of the day, the final decision was always Israel's, they restricted how much construction material could go in, whether it was concrete, whether it was iron, whether it was agriculture material, they decided what they approve and what they don't approve."

Before the 2014 war, which left entire neighbourhoods in ruins, Israel blocked most concrete imports into Gaza, claiming the material was being used by Hamas to build defensive structures. So vast was the devastation from that conflict, and previous wars, that the UN Development Programme said about 2.5 million tonnes of rubble littered the enclave.

At present, the World Bank estimates there is about 25 million tonnes of rubble in Gaza.

The GRM created a spiralling bureaucracy under which thousands of items were considered by Israel to be potentially of military use, or “dual use”.

Israel frequently changed what was listed as dual use and inspection times for components and material entering the strip – often more than 45 days – added additional requirements such as dedicated warehouses.

Once in Gaza, materials had to be strictly accounted for and monitored in dedicated facilities, leading to a small industry of staff working with the UN and the Palestinian Authority to manage the system, and eating into the aid budget.

David Harden, former assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, who worked on 2014 reconstruction in Gaza, said: “Let’s say you have the money – so you have to get the bulldozers ... and a load of cement in – are the Israelis going to allow that? They’re going to have an opinion on this ... because the rebar and cement are going to have to cross into Gaza [through the] port, Rafah or Kerem Shalom ... the Israelis control everything else.

“Who is going to import the rebar? This is after we’ve cleared everything out and there’s money and stability. Who’s going to import the cement and how is this going to be monitored so that it’s not being used to build tunnels again?

“Because legitimately or illegitimately, the Israelis are going to be worried about that and the Americans – especially if Hamas isn’t defeated. You’re going to want to monitor that and that’s going to create bureaucracy, delays, confusion and debate and then you’re just starting.”

The bureaucracy required by the GRM meant more ambitious projects were sometimes avoided, Oxfam reported, due to the additional layers of complexity.

But now, more complex projects – such as desalination plants – are what Gaza needs more than ever.

Rebuilding water infrastructure, while not as expensive as housing reconstruction, will be a complex undertaking, including evaluating damage to hundreds of kilometres of pipelines and repairing treatment plants.

And Ms Erekat said whatever comes next must be significantly improved from a prewar Gaza when the strip was already suffering from severe water and power shortages.

“In addition to a ceasefire, before we think of rebuilding Gaza, there needs to be a lifting of the blockade,” said Amira Aker, a postdoctoral fellow at Canada’s Laval University, who specialises in epidemiology and environmental health.

Before the war, nearly 98 per cent of Gaza’s water was deemed undrinkable, she said.

Gaza acquires its water from three main sources: aquifers, surface water and desalination plants.

“Aquifers should be the number one water source but are not, because Gaza is the most densely populated area on Earth and overpopulation leads to overconsumption, because 80 per cent of Gaza’s population are refugees so, of course, there’s overpopulation.”

Gaza’s aquifers are now highly stressed, infiltrated by seawater and sewage, making well-water extraction precarious.

“In terms of desalination plants, the ones that existed before October 7 were already overcapacity and several needed maintenance because they were destroyed in previous wars,” Ms Aker said. "They couldn’t be maintained because material wasn’t allowed to come into Gaza by Israel.

“Most sewage, meanwhile, is dumped into the Mediterranean, or goes on the land and a lot of that goes into the aquifers, further contaminating what little water is left."

There are two main reasons for this.

“This is due to corruption in Gaza but also because Israel always targets infrastructure and then allows very few materials in for fixing it,” she said.

Experts say the challenges ahead, if not properly managed, could resemble the reconstruction of Iraq, which, for years, trailed behind the requirements of the population, fuelling bitter political divides, protests and armed rebellion.

In Iraq, serious problems fed into a system of dysfunction that made it hard for reconstruction planners to prioritise. The economy needed to rebuild rapidly as people faced hunger and poverty after 12 years of US-led sanctions.

There was also an optimistic tone among US and British politicians about how quickly Iraq would become secure and stable after Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled. What quickly emerged was a crime wave and an insurgency aiming to topple the new political order.

“Until you have an end of conflict, you can’t really do anything ... but there has to be enough stability on the street – between Israeli troops and Hamas – but you also need enough calm to avoid a breakdown in law and order, or clan rivalry,” Mr Harden said.

“Let’s say Hamas is not in the picture but you have a chaotic security situation on the ground, you still can’t rebuild.”

As in Gaza, the requirements to quickly move the economy in Iraq, including lighting streets and markets, ensuring banks functioned, and factories and workshops were humming, all needed electricity.

This needed billions of dollars, power plants and electricity grid repair, taking years. But as the economy recovered through reconstruction funds, demand for electricity started to rise sharply, leading to blackouts and problems at water and sewage treatment plants.

In essence, the recovery of the economy outpaced growth in the electricity supply, leading to power cuts, which stalled economic growth.

All the while, discontent made it hard to quell the appeal of armed groups, which drained reconstruction project funds on security costs.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s interim government was riven with factional rivalry, much as Gaza’s political system once was, when Hamas and the Ramallah-based Fatah party fought in the strip in 2007.

Today, there is uncertainty over who will run Gaza, with the current Palestinian Authority government sworn in on March 31 and Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, an economist, saying one of his priorities will be the “reconstruction” of the Palestinian territories.

“With all due respect to Abu Mazen, it's really time for him to move on,” Mr Feierstein said, referring to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s government.

In the meantime, it is imperative to get aid flowing into Gaza – to “stabilise” the situation for millions of Palestinians in need of food, water and shelter, he said.

“And then hope that in 2025, we can begin to actually make progress.”

A tangled political history

Once the dust of war settles in Gaza, surveyors will be assessing the scale of devastation that could surpass anything seen since the establishment of the state of Israel.

“Usually, the damage is not as bad as it appears. It will not be the case this time,” said a Jordanian contractor, whose company took part in an internationally funded assessment after an 11-day war between Hamas and Israel in 2021.

That war, a little more than two weeks in duration, left 250,000 tonnes of rubble behind and, by some estimates, up to 500 Palestinians dead.

This war has lasted just over 15 months, with Israel using aerial bombing and shelling that has exceeded US air strike totals for the 2003 Iraq invasion by a wide margin.

If Israel and other powers have their way, Hamas would be replaced with a more pliant authority to govern Gaza.

Although such a scenario would remove fear of breaking western regulations about dealing with Hamas, it could pose new security risks for donors and contractors, observers said.

This would make reconstruction a long, drawn-out affair, with uncertainty over whether a new central local government is able to assert its power on the ground, even if funding is made available, they said.

“If Hamas is gone, the risks are high of more extremist groups filling the vacuum,” said a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah.

lthough Hamas has, for years, diverted significant construction material and funding to build its tunnel network and other military assets, it oversaw a system under which contractors could work as long as they owe the group allegiance, he said.

The patronage network the group has been overseeing helped change the topography of Gaza from tent and basic dwellings in the early 1990s to residential and commercial towers, boulevards and educational and health facilities.

This transformation was ushered by the return of Yasser Arafat and many other Palestinian Liberation Organisation members under a self-governance arrangement reached with Israel.

These members, many of whom had engineering and contracting experience in the Middle East and elsewhere, invested in Gaza and established a nucleus of infrastructure and property development.

But water and electricity infrastructure have remained lacking. The relative opening and stability in the 1990s gave way to Palestinian-Israeli violence and a Palestinian civil war in the 2000s that reversed previous progress.

Israeli restrictions, as well as limited access to Egypt, deepened rampant poverty and contributed to turning the enclave into what is widely seen as an open-air prison.

The rule of Hamas, which took control of Gaza from the PLO in 2006-2007, has nonetheless kept a lid on two main problems that the Palestinian official said resurface in Gaza: the Salafists and crime.

“If the resurfacing of jihadists does not scare off investors, then gangs will,” the Palestinian official said.

“Before a deal with Israel, there needs to be inner-Palestinian reconciliation in Gaza."

Palestinian families in Gaza who felt undermined by Hamas rule will also want to restore their turf and carve a share of any new reconstruction business, the official said.

“Under Hamas, no one had dared to lift their head. Its absence will clear the arena to settle the scores.”

A senior executive at a multinational infrastructure company, who visited Gaza several times, said the war comes as a time when conglomerates are generally shying away from conducting business in areas with high security risks.

Society in Gaza is also “highly complex … they do not like to see work going to outsiders”, he added.

Mr Grappo said the dynamic described by the senior executive could lead to tribal and political competition, further complicating reconstruction.

“The interim authority will find it very challenging, because they're going to need people who can roll up their sleeves and get stuff done,” he said.

“And it's going to be the people of Gaza who are going to be doing that. And that interface between this governing authority and the folks who can get it done, the workers and so forth, is where you see the clans jostling for the highest rung on the ladder they can find. Managing that is going to be very, very difficult.”

This, Mr Grappo said, is before considering the likelihood that Hamas will retain a presence, possibly alongside more militant groups who could take up arms against an interim government.

“The Israelis are not going to kill every single Hamas fighter, everyone knows that, even the Israelis, and that whatever remnant is left is going to find a way to reorganise itself,” he said.

“To the extent that it can – probably with help from the Iranians – they are going to pose a security challenge. And so whether it's the interim security force, or whatever follows in terms of a Palestinian-run security force, is going to have to be aware of that. A contingency is going to have to be prepared to deal with the inevitable insurgency that's going to arise.

“War is inherently unpredictable. And so is the outcome. And however Israel defines victory there in Gaza, I can assure you, it will actually look very different from what they're hoping [for] or expecting, very much, so very much.”

Clearing the rubble

As policymakers grapple with these questions, reconstruction will involve the colossal challenge of moving rubble, potentially toxic industrial material, bodies and unexploded bombs (UXO) something that plagued the rebuilding of Mosul, Iraq, after the war on ISIS.

Ms Aker said contamination from building materials within the debris itself will be a major issue, especially if asbestos was used, as it is in Egypt. Then the issue of waste comes in – whether human or in terms of bodies.

“The number of bodies, be it those that have been buried anywhere right now, or those exhumed by Israeli military tanks, or mass graves, or just bodies lying around everywhere, which need to be buried appropriately but will also be within the rubble we bring up. How will that be taken care of?” Ms Aker asked.

Mr Harden agreed, saying the rubble would be toxic, contain human remains and a lot of UXO that will have to be mapped and disposed of safely and transparently.

“If you have some UXO near a school, or a water site, or a sewage plant, you can’t do anything until you remove the rubble and UXO and you need specialised teams to remove those UXOs. Once you’ve essentially diffused it, then you have to dispose of it. Israelis are going to have a view on that, the UN is going to have a view on that, the US is going to have a view on that."

Mr Harden said Gaza is now essentially a zone of risk, because even the most modern weapons have a “failure rate”, where some don’t detonate and pose danger to farmers, reconstruction workers and civilians searching through rubble of their homes.

“There's probably tens of thousands of UXOs, so we have to figure out where each one is ... then defuse it and remove it and make sure these things are done in a way that is not used later by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad or anyone else and all this stuff is extremely complicated. And it’s not even reconstruction."

The need to 'build back better'

For 17 years, two thirds of Gaza's population lived below the poverty line, with the strip's GDP growing by 1 per cent over the same period.

Today, the population is poorer, more insecure and lacks access to basic infrastructure needed for survival. Between 50 and 60 per cent of Gaza's structures have been completely destroyed, including schools, hospitals and universities.

Rami Alazzeh, a UN Conference on Trade and Development economist, believes in the idea of “building back better” for a more secure and ultimately prosperous Gaza.

“Since 2007, Gaza has been looked at as a humanitarian case and not part of the development agenda,” he said. “While humanitarian needs need to be met as a priority, it’s time to put Gaza back on the development agenda.”

Gaza has plenty to benefit from, Mr Alazzeh said, given its location and natural resources, as well as its human resources.

“Gaza cannot be under blockade under reconstruction and the economy in the West Bank and Gaza should be unified,” he said.

These aspirations, Mr Harden said, tie into a longer-term hope that a viable Palestinian state can exist alongside Israel.

“Is there a two-state solution or a definitive trajectory towards a Palestinian state? Is the PA well involved, well received or broken and corrupt? Is there an Arab multinational force or UN umbrella on the top of this or not? Because I don’t think people are going to invest unless there’s a pathway towards a Palestinian state,” he said.

Regardless of what happens in the coming years, Ms Erekat said, surviving Gazans – in addition to losing so much and facing so much trauma – have to regain something that, for now, remains intangible: their heritage.

“When we talk about reconstruction, we can probably visualise it in the physical sense but what about rebuilding history? Rebuilding memory, rebuilding the heritage sites that have been destroyed? What about the artefacts that have been looted? There were around four main museums in Gaza and 11 in total, because it has such a rich history that is over 5,000 years old. There are artefacts in the sea of Gaza. Gazans would actually find these artefacts in the shallow waters off the coast and they were put in museums and so forth.

“You have to have the memory of the social fabric," she said. "You have the spaces, the people's spaces and personal lives that have been completely destroyed or looted. How do you rebuild that?”

Disclaimer

The opinion expressed in this paper is that of the author and does not necessarily reflect that of CEMAS Board.

Journalists in Gaza have shown us the truth & paid with their lives

Journalists in Gaza have shown us the truth & paid with their lives

By Afroze Fatima Zaidi, The New Arab

For over 14 months Palestinian journalists have been ignored & undermined despite the deadly work they do to inform us of Israel’s crimes, writes Afroze Zaidi.

In the past fourteen months, Israel has killed a reported 196 journalists as part of its genocide in Gaza. On 16 December, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) gave a conservative death toll of 133 journalists while condemning Israel’s impunity amid the rising number being murdered in Gaza.

CPJ reported that at least four journalists have been killed by Israel in the past week alone: Ahmed Al-Louh, Mohammed Balousha, Mohammed Al-Qrinawi and Iman Al-Shanti. They all appear to have been targeted by Israel through direct strikes. In the case of Al-Qrinawi and Al-Shanti, their families were also slaughtered along with them.

These are only some of the latest reported incidents of Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists. In the case of Mohammed Balousha, it hardly seems a coincidence that he was the one who broke the story about bodies of premature babies left to decompose in Gaza’s Al-Nasr hospital. After shooting and injuring him exactly one year ago, Israeli forces have now succeeded in killing him.

Palestinian-American journalist Mariam Barghouti, while reporting Al-Louh’s killing on Twitter/X, noted: “Every 50 hours a journalist is killed in Gaza”. Meanwhile CPJ added that journalists in the north of Gaza “are facing catastrophic conditions, saying ethnic cleansing is happening in a news void in northern Gaza.”

There’s little question that one of the main reasons for us having a record of the atrocities Israel has committed in Gaza is the reporting of local journalists. While some of them were able to flee, others such as Hossam Shbat, Hind Khoudary and Bisan Owda have stayed behind to continue vital reporting on the ground.

So when Foreign Secretary David Lammy dared to remark at the end of November that “there are no journalists in Gaza”, this reflected at least two things. Firstly, in the interests of Western-backed imperialism, the suffering and literal genocide of indigenous groups are actively erased. Second, these imperialist forces don’t consider Palestinians to be reliable sources and reporters of their own stories.

Without a doubt, this silencing and erasure further compounds the injustice experienced by Palestinians amidst their ongoing genocide. Apart from those killed, at least 49 journalists have been reportedly injured, and two are missing. A further 75 have been illegally detained by Israel.

How heart-breaking it must be to be a journalist in Gaza, not only witnessing the genocide of your people and documenting it in vain, but also experiencing the dehumanisation as a Palestinian which completely erases both your suffering and your journalistic contribution.

It is utterly shameful that, in the midst of this, journalists in the West, especially from mainstream outlets, have expressed little to no support towards their colleagues in Gaza. At best, they have stood idly by without making any show of solidarity. At worst, they have actively enabled Israel’s genocidal agenda.

Historian Assal Rad is among those who have extensively documented the use of passive voice by mainstream Western media outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, BBC and Associated Press. The BBC has faced criticism from its own staff for its clear pro-Israel bias and its policy of prioritising Israel’s right to defend itself.

Within this context, it’s no wonder, then, that Israel has carried out its targeted campaign against journalists in Gaza - as well as healthcare and aid workers - with impunity. Because Israel is well aware that Western governments and media are standing by, willing and eager to erase and minimise its crimes.

What else would explain the silence of Western politicians and media on Israel’s targeting of journalists in particular? As Amnesty International Australia gave its Human Rights Defender Award to journalists from Gaza, the news barely appears to have been reported by mainstream media. Similarly, with at least 133 journalists now confirmed dead in Gaza, many of them deliberately targeted while wearing press vests, it’s been difficult to find a mainstream outlet that has considered this newsworthy.

Journalism - real, independent journalism, that is - plays a key function in democratic accountability. So by erasing the contributions and sacrifices of journalists in Gaza, Western politicians and media outlets are actively hindering accountability for Israel and ensuring its impunity. While rumours of a ceasefire circulate, people continue to suffer under constant threat of bombardment, starvation, and little to no medical aid.

Meanwhile, for supporters of the Palestinian people, it’s terrifying to see updates from Bisan, Hossam, Hind, and other journalists and wonder if they will survive to see another day, or if any given post might be their last. In the midst of this, it’s imperative that journalists of conscience are highlighting their struggles, amplifying their stories, and doing what they can to hold Israel accountable.

One thing is for sure: regardless of the best efforts of those in power to erase the genocide in Gaza in general and Israel’s silencing of journalists in particular, we are bearing witness. We are keeping records. The day will come when no amount of gaslighting will be enough to save the Israeli occupation. And it will be thanks, in no small part, to the literal blood, sweat, and tears of journalists in Gaza.

Author

Afroze Fatima Zaidi is a writer, editor and journalist. She has a background in academia and writing for online platforms.

Snapshots: Palestinian journalists capture life under bombardment in Gaza

By Mohammed Zaanoun: Photojournalist based in Gaza
Maha Hussaini: Award-winning journalist and human rights activist based in Gaza
Mohamed Soulaimane: Freelance journalist based in Gaza, writing under a pseudonym for safety given the security situation

The New Humanitarian, 27 February 2024

Despite the risks, the journalists continue to try to keep the spotlight on the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

GAZA

Like everyone now in the Gaza Strip, photojournalist Mohammed Zaanoun, journalist Maha Hussaini, and journalist Mohamed Soulaimane have been living breath by breath, in fear of what might fall from the sky, but they continue to send photographs and video and audio clips to keep the spotlight on what people there are experiencing. Here is their latest dispatch:

27 February 2024 - ‘People are collapsing in the streets due to starvation’

Back in December, a group of UN-backed international experts warned that there was a risk of famine in Gaza, with 90% of the population facing acute levels of food insecurity. Now, young children have reportedly begun to die due to malnutrition. Last month, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to the enclave, which has been under total Israeli siege since 7 October. Since the order, however, the already limited amount of aid entering the enclave has dropped by half. As journalist Maha Hussaini reports, the situation is worst in the north, where hundreds of thousands of people who stayed behind after Israel’s evacuation orders in October are on the brink of starvation.

Back in May 2023, The New Humanitarian began working with Mohammed Zaanoun on a special project to explore what daily life looked like in Gaza. Media coverage then was sporadic, even though the impacts of decades of occupation and the effects of war were constants.

Everything changed overnight on 7 October, after a raid into Israel by Hamas gunmen left around 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians who were killed deliberately, according to the Israeli authorities. Hamas, the political and militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, also took around 240 hostages back into the coastal enclave. An estimated 134 remain in captivity, some of whom are believed to have died.

Gaza has faced nearly four months of intense Israeli bombardment since. A total siege has almost entirely cut off water and electricity and blocked the entry of food, fuel, and medical supplies. And a ground invasion has seen Israeli forces take control over most of northern Gaza and push into the south. Only a trickle of humanitarian aid has made it into the enclave. The population of around 2.3 million people – an estimated 1.7 million of whom have been displaced from their homes – is facing crisis levels of food insecurity, with the potential for famine looming, according to the World Food Programme.

More than 30,000 people – including at least 12,300 children – have been killed by Israel’s military operations as of 27 February, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

The level of death and destruction – as well as rhetoric from Israeli officials – prompted South Africa to file a case in the International Court of Justice, the UN’s top court, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. In an interim ruling on 16 January, it found “at least some” of South Africa’s allegations to be “plausible”.

At least 88 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October. Amid the extreme level of violence and desperate humanitarian conditions, reporting from the enclave has become increasingly difficult and dangerous. To keep a spotlight on what is happening, we have supplemented Zaanoun’s dispatches with reports from Hussaini and Soulaimane.

To view Zaanoun’s Snapshots from before 7 October, click here, and find more of Hussaini, Zaanoun, and Soulaimane’s recent dispatches below:

20 February 2024 - ‘How much longer will we survive this?’

With an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah looming, some displaced people who sought shelter in the southernmost region of Gaza are now packing their few belongings and heading back north. Palestinian journalist Mohamed Soulaimane – who has been reporting from Gaza for The New Humanitarian since 7 October – sent this dispatch about the dire humanitarian conditions people are facing in Rafah and the ever-elusive search for safety. Around 1.4 million people are crammed into Rafah, more than four times the number living there before 7 October. Many are sheltering in makeshift tents as humanitarian organisations struggle to meet even their basic needs. World leaders and NGOs are warning that an Israeli ground invasion would lead to mass casualties and bring an end to even the limited aid operations currently taking place. But with ongoing hostilities and widespread destruction in all of Gaza, there’s nowhere else for people to go. As one mother Soulaimane spoke to said: “I have no place to take my children, other than to jump in the sea.”

2 February 2024 - ‘The attacks are indiscriminate’

Hussaini has been forcibly displaced for a second time by Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip. In November, she wrote about how the concept of “home” was already becoming a distant memory, after she was forced to flee her apartment in Gaza City – where she had lived for 17 years – to seek safety in the central area of the enclave. Now, with Israel’s ground invasion approaching her place of refuge, she’s been forced to flee again to southern Gaza, where over one million people have been packed into an area that used to have a population of around 280,000. But even in the south of Gaza, “the situation is still unsafe”, Hussaini says.

9 January 2024 – Journalists killed near the Rafah border

An Israeli airstrike on 7 January that killed journalists Hamza al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya while they were on assignment – and severely injured a third journalist – is putting a renewed spotlight on the deadly toll of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza on Palestinian media workers. At least 72 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the campaign began on 7 October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Al-Dahdouh is the son of veteran Al-Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh, a familiar face to millions across the Middle East. Wael al-Dahdouh’s wife, two of his other children, and his grandchild were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October. For a first-person look at the impact of the killing of journalists, read: What it’s like being a journalist in Gaza.

18 December 2023 - Aid shortages in Egyptian border camp

As more and more of the roughly 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip – some 85% of whom have now been displaced by the bombardment and Israeli ground invasion – have been driven south towards the Egyptian border, Zaanoun’s focus this week is on a refugee camp of 70,000 people that has now formed at Tal al-Sultan, near Rafah. As the winter rains and cold temperatures hit, he says children don’t have blankets, not to mention shortages of food, water, sewage systems, and medical supplies. “Unfortunately, there are no big international [aid] organisations to support families in these areas,” he says.

5 December 2023 - ‘For the pain to go away, we will live here’

After Israel resumed its bombardment on 1 December, intensely striking areas across the Gaza Strip – including in the south, where most of the enclave’s 2.3 million people have now been corralled – Zaanoun sent this footage of a group of journalists gathering outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. “We will stay here,” they sing together in solidarity. “For the pain to go away, we will live here.” At least 57 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since 7 October, in addition to well over 100 aid workers, mostly from the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. Zaanoun says the situation has become “catastrophic” and he must now focus on the safety of his wife and their four children. No safe place is left for them, he says.

27 November 2023 - Pause brings some respite

The good news is that Zaanoun, who reported being sick after drinking dirty water in his previous dispatch, is now feeling better after managing to get his hands on some medication. But one of his four children isn’t doing so well, possibly due to the lack of food or the pollution. Zaanoun also had to pull them out of the rubble, for a second time, as the house they were sheltering in was hit by an Israeli strike. That was before the four-day pause in fighting began on Friday, offering some respite. In this clip, Zaanoun shows the Abu al-Ruk family taking advantage of the lull to gather around a fire near the ruins of their home in eastern Khan Younis. Zaanoun says his own family headed there in a rush and has no winter clothes.

23 November 2023 - ‘We couldn’t find anyone to help us’

In his last filing before being struck down sick, due, he believes, to drinking dirty water, Zaanoun filed this report, interviewing Asma Ayad al-Rifi. Last month, she had been ordered, along with many other Palestinians, to evacuate from their neighbourhood in eastern Gaza to an area the Israelis said would be safe. “They were lying,” Al-Rifi says, as she recounts how an Israeli strike led to the roof falling on their heads in the middle of the night. She describes how two women and six children were killed instantly as they became buried in the rubble of the building where they were sheltering, in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. Al-Rifi had to pull others out, herself, by hand.

16 November 2023 – ‘It’s raining now in Gaza’

In this snapshot, we’ve combined Zaanoun’s photographs with an audio diary from Maha Hussaini, an award-winning journalist and human rights activist in Gaza. Hussaini was forced to leave her home in Gaza City on 13 October. In this voice note, she says that she loves autumn, winter, and the rainy weather that the colder seasons bring. But for the first time in her life she is praying that the rain will stop soon because it is making life harder for the around 1.6 million people in Gaza who have been displaced by Israel’s bombardment and military campaign. Many of the displaced are staying in tents. “I actually cannot imagine their situation now as the rain is pouring down,” Hussaini said. Listen to her full voice note below, and read her recent first-person article: In Gaza, death seems closer than water.

10 November 2023 – ‘Fellow journalists live in the same tent’

Zaanoun and other Palestinian journalists in Gaza continue to cover Israel’s bombardment and near-total siege of the enclave, even as they struggle to cope with the killing of dozens of colleagues and the effects of violence on themselves and their families. They are playing a crucial role by reporting from inside Gaza as Israel continues to bar international journalists who are not embedded with the Israeli military from entering the enclave. Many journalists in Gaza have been displaced from their homes and have sought refuge in hospitals, where they are able to charge their phones, laptops, and cameras, and where they have a better chance of connecting to weak internet signals to send their photos, videos, and stories to the outside world. If the dwindling supply of fuel for back-up generators powering the hospitals runs out, Zaanoun and others could find themselves completely cut off.

6 November 2023 - 'My friend, his family was killed'

Dozens of people were killed in a blast in the densely populated al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday night, including the family of Zaanoun’s friend and fellow photojournalist Mohammed al-Aloul. The blast was one of several in refugee camps in Gaza over the weekend, as the death toll from Israel’s now month-long bombardment and siege of the enclave continues to spiral. The health ministry in Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, said at least 45 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on al-Maghazi camp. The Israeli military has said it cannot confirm whether it was responsible for the blast. Four of al-Aloul’s five children were killed. His wife and one-year-old son survived.

3 November 2023 – ‘How long will we be removing bodies?’

Zaanoun reports from al-Shati refugee camp in the north of Gaza, where rescuers are digging through the rubble after an Israeli airstrike. It appears too late to find survivors, and they are now just working to retrieve the bodies of some of the children killed. One man tells Zaanoun that seven homes were destroyed and at least 14 children killed. His sister is among the dead. “How long will we be removing bodies in Gaza?” the man asks. “Until when? You have destroyed us, that's enough.”

31 October 2023 - Shut off completely from the world

For roughly 36 hours, between 27 and 29 October, almost all cellular and internet service in the Gaza Strip stopped working amidst heavy Israeli bombardment and the beginning of a ground invasion. The communications blackout made it so people couldn’t call ambulances after airstrikes, speak with relatives, or deliver information about what was happening in the enclave to the outside world. Even as services have been restored, concerns remain over access to information. Israel and Egypt are blocking international journalists from entering Gaza, while at least 26 Palestinian journalists have been killed, most by Israeli airstrikes on the enclave. After communications were restored, Zaanoun was able to resume sending photos.

27 October 2023 - ‘We bid farewell to the family of our colleague’

Zaanoun goes to Al-Aqsa Hospital to share condolences with fellow journalist Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, whose family were killed in an Israeli airstrike. He says people have been told to go to the south of the Gaza Strip, but then shows civilians bringing in their injured after a strike hit their homes near the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. “There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, and no safe road,” he says.

18 October 2023 - Gaza reels from hospital explosion

Zaanoun photographs the aftermath of the massive blast at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on 17 October that killed nearly 500 people and wounded 300, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Thousands of civilians had taken shelter from Israeli bombardment in the facility. Health officials in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike caused the blast. Israeli officials blamed it on a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad – an armed group based in Gaza that has denied any involvement.

17 October 2023 - ‘The smell of death is everywhere’

Before the al-Ahli blast, people in Gaza were already suffering the effects of Israeli bombardment and siege. In addition to those killed and injured, around one million people have been displaced from their homes, out of a population of roughly 2.3 million. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, and first responders and residents in Gaza have scrambled to dig people out from under flattened buildings, often only using their hands.

12 October 2023 - ‘Maybe this is the last message from me’

On the night of 11 October night, shortly after Gaza’s only power station ran out of fuel, and as Israeli artillery thudded nearby, Zaanoun took shelter in Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the enclave. Israel cut off the electricity it provides to the territory after Hamas fighters launched a deadly assault inside Israel on 7 October. Many Gazans have headed to hospitals and UN-run facilities hoping to find safety.

11 October 2023 - ‘Civilians thought they were safe in their homes’

Zaanoun reports on the worsening situation inside Gaza. In his first video for our latest Snapshots series, the Palestinian photojournalist says civilian buildings have been destroyed by Israeli strikes that have killed dozens of people.

For vivid and shocking videos of events, visit: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/video/2024/02/27/snapshots-palestinian-photographer-captures-life-under-bombardment-gaza