A year ago, my dear friend and parent, journalist Amna Homaid, was brutally killed, with her eldest child, Mahdi, 11 years old. She was targeted following an incentive to her by the Israeli media.
I still remember the flood of sorrow and condolences that flocked, keeping the family occupied for the first days that followed their murder. International media contacted Amna’s husband with condolences. Articles on his murder and the incentive that preceded him circulated largely. Social media overflowed with messages on Amna and her achievements, all with the same mourning tone.
Meanwhile, people who were crying were narcotic between sorrow, pride and blame. The blame was not heading against Israel who killed her, nor to the world that allowed murder, but Amna’s decision to choose the fatal path of journalism in an excluded country of international law.
The sorrow has finally disappeared. Amna was gradually forgotten and no institution, no government has ever asked for an investigation into her murder. But what happened with her is no exception; This is the rule.
This is what will probably happen with journalists Hussam Al-Masri, Mohammad Salama, Mariam Abu Daqqa, Ahmed Abu Aziz and Moaz Abu Taha, who were killed today in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The massacre briefly makes the headlines now, but will soon be forgotten like the murder of Amna.
Although these journalists are protected civilians, although they would do it again in a medical establishment which benefits from special protection under humanitarian law, no one will hold Israel responsible for what he claims to be a “error”, and no one will establish.
This is what happened with the assassination of Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal, Moamin Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khaldi two weeks ago. It has also been gradually forgotten. The praise of social media has faded. Their murder, which has been described as “unacceptable” and a “serious violation of international law”, has not yet been the subject of an investigation, while Israel’s claims on the Anas remain undisputed.
The burial of Israel living from journalist Marwa Musallam, with her two brothers, in June, her murder of Hussam Shabat in March, his murder of Ismail Al -Ghoul and Rami al -Rifi in July 2024 and – most painfully for me – his assassination of my dear teacher Refaat Alareer in December 2023 shows how this recurring model ends.
The silence following each Israeli atrocity opens the way to the next and another failure in the world to be reported.
After seeing this deadly cycle repeat themselves again and again, the Palestinians ended up believing that a reporting career is a death sentence for the journalists themselves and their families.
My family, who has long encouraged their young people to pursue studies on the media, now dissuades anyone who decides to follow in the footsteps of Amna after her murder. “It’s a lonely road where the world turns their back on you,” they say.
Those who are currently working as family journalists are warned to reduce their work and stay in light.
My uncle Hamed, the stepfather of Amna, told me that he would never allow his six other children to pursue a career that is even bound to journalism. “No actor, no journalism. I would never let them appear in front of the media.”
“I used to encourage anyone to enter the field of journalism. This is the field of truth, I would say. After Amna, I hated everything related to the field,” he added.
Even Amna’s husband, Saed Hassouna, who is also a journalist and is used to advising young people interested in this area, gradually reduced her work after the murder of Amna.
Silence and withdrawal leave the families of journalists with nothing other than unscathed trauma. In the case of Amna, a year after his death, her child, Mohammed, 10, who saw his mother and brother die before his eyes and personally arose to the journalist Ismail al-Ghoul that his family was under the rubble, always undergoes trauma attacks. Whenever he is sad, he shouts on people to let him go to the Israelis who killed his mother, so they also kill him.
Amna’s girl, Ghina, five, is still waiting for her to come back, and often cry: “Where did you take my mother?”
Almost 23 months after this brutal war, and the whole world is still only going to offer condolences to the dead Palestinians. He does everything he can to avoid even the slightest feeling of responsibility for what’s going on in Gaza.
To date, 244 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza. All of them received the same treatment – even those documented in detail were not prosecuted as war crimes. The case of Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in 2022 in Jenin by an Israeli elite shooter, was a warning sign of what is to come. Even his citizenship and American surveys by the American media could not obtain his justice.
If Palestinian journalists of mourning allow you to feel less guilt, if that gives you the impression of having fulfilled your duty towards them, does not cry them. We don’t need more praise; We need justice. This is the least that the world can make for children orphans of Mariam, Amna, Anas and the rest of the 244 journalists killed in Gaza.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.