A picture taken of Motaz Azaiza in Gaza. (Credit: Instagram/@motaz_azaiza)
Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza announced on his Instagram account on Tuesday that he had decided to "evacuate" the Gaza Strip and suspend his coverage of the war between Hamas and Israel, without specifying the reasons for his decision.
Since the start of the war, Motaz Azaiza has been on the frontlines, documenting the daily lives of Gazans. Under bombardment, he shared daily updates on the latest developments in the Palestinian enclave.
The 24-year-old photojournalist has gained international recognition for his reporting. Dubai-based GQ Middle East magazine dedicated the front page of its December 2023 issue to him, calling him "Man of the Year."
In suspending his coverage of the war, Azaiza follows in the footsteps of Gazan journalist Plestia Alaqad, who made a name for herself covering the first two months of the conflict in the enclave before leaving for Australia with her family. The Gaza bureau chief of Qatar's al-Jazeera, Wael el-Dahdouh, who lost several relatives and was himself wounded during the war, left the enclave in mid-January for Doha, Qatar, to undergo surgery.
Journalists have paid a heavy price since Oct. 7, 2023. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 83 journalists have been killed covering the conflict, including three in Lebanon. Other parties have reported an even higher number of journalists killed. According to the latest figures from the Gazan Ministry of Health, at least 25,490 people have been killed and 63,354 wounded since the beginning of the conflict.
It ia not just on the battlefield that journalists are being abused in the Middle East. In its annual census published last Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) claimed that "Israel has become one of the world's biggest prisons for journalists since the start of the war between Israel and Gaza on Oct. 7". For the first time since the first census in 1992, Israel is among the top 6 countries in the ranking. It is tied for 6th place with Iran – which topped the ranking in 2022.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.