'Do Not Stop Speaking About Gaza': Palestinian Journalist Prepared Final Words Before Death
Israeli forces separately killed two Palestinian journalists in Gaza within hours of each other on Monday, including an Al Jazeera correspondent who had prewritten his final words to be released after his death.
The Israeli military first killed Palestine Today correspondent Mohammed Mansour in Khan Younis, along with his wife and son, in an airstrike. All three were in their house in southern Gaza when the strike hit, according to Al Jazeera.
Many of Gaza's surviving journalists shared posts on social media mourning Mansour, including Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Hossam Shabat. Less than an hour after reporting on Mansour's death, Shabat himself was killed in northern Gaza.
'Hossam was not just a brother or a passing journalist, but a pure soul walking the earth, an influential journalist and a symbol of northern Gaza,' said Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who posted several graphic clipson X showing the immediate aftermath of the attack on his 24-year-old friend and colleague. Shabat's dead body can be seen on the ground by his car near Beit Lahiya.
Anticipating his death as a prominent Palestinian journalist, Shabat had composed final words to be published posthumously by his colleagues. He begins by saying he has likely been targeted and killed by Israeli forces if the public is reading his message.
'When this all began, I was only 21 years old – a college student with dreams like anyone else,' he wrote. 'For the past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury. I slept on pavements, in schools, in tents – anywhere I could. Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my people's side.'
Shabat was also a contributor to Drop Site News, a U.S.-based media outlet that has joined the calls condemning the attack and accusing Israel of targeting him. The well-known journalist never stopped trying to show the reality in Gaza, even when Israel put him and five other Al Jazeera colleagues on what Drop Site's co-founder described as a kill list in October. At the time, Shabat said he felt like he was 'hunted' and accused Israel of fabricating a dossier to frame him for terrorism.
'His writing was lyrical and arresting. I struggled to translate and edit his pieces – to do them justice, to convey his emotive use of Arabic into something relatable in English,' his editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous said in publishing Shabat's last article 'through tears' for Drop Site.
'In the typical editorial see-saw back and forth of finalizing a piece, I would often return to him with clarifications and questions, asking him for additional details and direct quotes,' Kouddous continued. 'He was always quick to respond despite his extraordinary circumstances.'
The Israeli military has a history of trying to paint Palestinian journalists as terrorists — particularly those who work for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, one of the few media networks able to broadcast from inside Gaza. On Monday, though Israeli strikes killed the two Palestinian journalists, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department blamed Hamas for their deaths.
'By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest – something I haven't known in the past 18 months,' Shabat said in his posthumous message. 'I did all this because I believe in the Palestinian cause. I believe this land is ours, and it has been the highest honor of my life to die defending it and serving its people.'
Israel has killed more than 206 journalists in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Media Office and the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate — the deadliest incident for journalists in modern history. In response to Mansour and Shabat's deaths, PJS demanded the international community end its 'disgraceful complicity' to 'move beyond mere condemnation' and take actionable steps to hold Israel accountable.
The attacks come as Israel continues to relentlessly bomb Gaza after breaking a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. In recent days, the Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians. With Gaza's journalists trying to do their job while surviving what human rights groups and the international community say is a genocide, Shabat had a special posthumous message for his colleagues.
'I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away,' he said. 'Keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free.'
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