Palestinian journalists lift placards during a rally in protest of the killing of fellow reporters Hussam Shabat and Muhammad Mansour in Israeli strikes a day earlier, in Gaza City on 25 March 2025
Ahmad Ibsais writes in Mondoweiss on 25 March 2025:
On March 24, 2025, we witnessed the deliberate killing of yet another Palestinian journalist. Hossam Shabat, a 24-year-old reporter for Al Jazeera Mubasher and contributor to Drop Site News, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike targeting his vehicle in northern Gaza. Hours earlier, Mohammad Mansour, a correspondent for Palestine Today, was also killed in Khan Younis.
These were not accidents. These were not casualties of “crossfire” or “clashes.” These were targeted assassinations designed to silence those who document the truth about Gaza.
“If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces,” wrote Hossam in a final message shared by his team. His words now stand as both testament and indictment. “I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury.”
The Israeli military placed Hossam and five other Palestinian journalists on a hit list in October 2024. He regularly received death threats by call and text. Yesterday, that threat was carried out.
When this genocide began, Hossam was just 21 years old—a college student studying journalism who could not have imagined his future. “Little did I know I would be given one of the hardest jobs in the world: to cover the genocide of my own people,” he wrote about a year ago.