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The horrific death toll among Gaza’s journalists has become a familiar headline. Ten per cent of the enclave’s media workers have been killed since 7 October – a mortality rate significantly in excess of combat soldiers in most wars. Less well-known are the privations of those of Gaza’s journalists who continue to work, and – since the exclusion of international reporters from the enclave – are the only source of news from Gaza. ....
The pace at which the journalists’ death toll is growing in Gaza is without precedent. But it is the slaughter of the entire family of a journalist that may ultimately become emblematic of the extraordinary bravery of Palestinian reporters during this conflict. ....
As he started to speak to international journalists over Zoom, Gazan reporter Tahseen Al Astall raised a plastic water bottle and took a sip. “Water is very expensive now in Gaza”, he said. “In fact, finding any water at all is difficult”. He was sitting in a makeshift tent, sun beating through its flapping walls, in the midst of the media encampment that has grown up around the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis. “Conditions here are very harsh and arduous. We are here because it is the only place that we can get electricity and an internet connection”. ....