The nine-year-old Palestinian girl bringing Gazans’ struggles to social media amid war

Lama Jamous in a video posted to her Instagram page

Nagham Zbeedat reports in Haaretz on 25 March 2024

Nine-year-old Lama Jamous swapped dolls for a microphone and camera after the Gaza war broke out, taking to Instagram to document the daily struggle of Palestinians during Israel’s campaign in the enclave, which has so far killed tens of thousands of people, many of them children.

Jamous, the youngest member of her family, chose to follow in the footsteps of her journalist father when the war erupted after Hamas’ October 7 attack. Similarly inspired by Palestinian journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh and others who are risking their lives to document atrocities in Gaza, Lama donned a press vest and navigated the rubble, sharing her story and those of other Palestinian children with her 883K Instagram followers.

“Me and all children of Palestine want the war to end and to show the truth of what has been happening to us for decades now,” Lama said in an interview with BBC Arabic. “We are homeless and tired. We just want to go about our lives.”

Jamous has conducted interviews with children wounded in hospital bombings and documented the challenging living conditions of those sheltering in schools in Gaza. She even interviewed al-Dahdouh on her Instagram in a video which has been viewed some 995,000 times.

In another video, Lama is seen exploring the rubble of her home before evacuating to southern Gaza. She was forcibly displaced twice – first from Gaza City in the north to Khan Yunis in the south and then from Khan Yunis to Rafah. In the video, Lama sifts through the destruction to retrieve pieces of clothing, including one piece that she identifies as a gift from her late aunt, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

“We want the bombing to stop. Wherever we go, there is bombardment. We need a safe zone, we don’t want war,” Lama told Al Jazeera, citing the effect of the war on children, “who are starving and suffering,” who “want to return to our homes and schools and to be able to play with our friends again.” In the closing shot of the video posted on Al Jazeera’s website, Lama addresses viewers in English, surrounded by a group of children: “Our message to the world – please stop the war.”

Despite widespread admiration for Lama on social media, her efforts also reflect the disturbing absurdity of a nine-year-old reporting on war, and from the perspective of the children suffering under it. In December, the spokesman for UNICEF, James Elder, called Gaza “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.” In her capacity as an aspiring journalist, she is also increasingly vulnerable. As of March 1, 89 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began.

As one commenter on Lama’s Instagram noted, “When a child must do the job, it’s time for us to ask about our [own] responsibility.”

This article is reproduced in its entirety