Latest news with #BelalKhaled
New Statesman
3 days ago
- Health
- New Statesman
The horror of Gaza's children's hospitals
Photo by Belal Khaled/Anadolu via Getty Images On 16 June, I gave testimony to the Foreign Affairs Committee in Westminster. I wish I could have shared stories of hope, or progress, or of basic human decency. But I was there to testify about the atrocities Israel is committing in Gaza, and to ask how long the UK government will remain complicit. The last major functioning hospital in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital, is at risk of being forced out of service by the Israeli military. Tanks have moved within striking distance. Forced displacement orders have been issued. There are hundreds of patients inside, including dozens in intensive care. Among the exhausted doctors who stay to care for patients are colleagues I worked alongside a few months ago, when I was volunteering there. If the hospital is bombed, invaded or forced to shut down – as has happened to nearly every other hospital in Gaza – the healthcare system in the south will collapse entirely. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be left with no healthcare. And patients will die – this is not hyperbole. This is part of a pattern of violations by the Israeli military that UN experts and human rights groups have concluded amounts to a genocide unfolding before our eyes. On 23 March, I was treating patients at Nasser Hospital, including dozens of children injured by military air strikes following Israel's decision to break the ceasefire on 18 March. Then, without warning, a huge blast shook the building. We ran outside to see what had happened and a colleague screamed: 'They hit surgery.' Flames engulfed the building. The biggest operating hospital in Gaza, full of staff and patients, had been targeted by an Israeli strike. A war crime in plain sight. On the day Israel broke the ceasefire we were awoken in the middle of the night at the hospital, where volunteer medical staff both worked and slept, by the biggest air strikes I'd ever experienced. The doors were banging, and the walls were shaking. Everybody was in a state of panic. As the ambulances and donkey carts of casualties started to flood in, our emergency room and paediatric intensive care unit were overwhelmed. Many of the patients were children, bombs dropped on them while they slept in their tents. In the first couple of hours, at least 76 casualties were taken straight to the morgue, dead on arrival. We later learned that at least 183 children were killed in Israeli military attacks in just that one day. We ran around between patients who were rapidly losing blood, gasping for life. We had to make agonising decisions about which children to prioritise. Some of the children I saw had injuries they could never survive. Others could have been saved with the necessary resources, but we had shortages of everything. I remember their faces, their earrings, their two little first teeth. I remember how carefully they had been dressed for sleep in their cold tents, the delicateness with which their hair was braided. I remember a baby, not yet one, brought in by her uncle. She had multiple perforations to her bowel, bleeding around her kidney, and swelling of her brain after Israeli bombs hit her home. Her mother was killed and her father injured in the same attack. A few days after her life-saving surgery, her first and only repeated word was 'mama'. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Another little girl, about five years old, had the word 'unknown' written on her abdomen – no family had come in with her. She had severe bleeding in her spleen, multiple perforations to her bowel, and shrapnel going through her brain, resulting in paralysis on one side of her body. There was a boy, about six years old. An artery in his leg was severed, he was haemorrhaging when we treated him. His foot was crushed, and we thought he might have a brain injury. His siblings were all killed bar one sister. This is just a snapshot of the patients I saw on the day of one of the largest child death tolls in Gaza's history. As the hospital now faces an invasion, staff continue to treat an influx of injuries, many of them from attacks at US-supported Israeli militarised 'aid' distribution points. Doctors report that most of the patients have been injured by direct sniper fire to the head or chest, and almost all of them are acutely malnourished. Meanwhile, infants in the neonatal department risk starving to death as the hospital runs out of essential baby formula that continues to be barred from entering by Israel. Since October 2023, at least 56,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 17,100 children. Some 132,000 people have been injured, and some 92 per cent of homes damaged or destroyed. And these figures are all likely underestimates according to experts' analyses; thousands are missing. Nothing I write here could fully encapsulate the devastating catalogue of atrocities that has occurred in Gaza in the past 20 months. These numbers and stories should make anyone feel disgusted and moved to act. Yet the lack of action is nothing short of abhorrent. The killing or injuring of more than 50,000 children is not an 'inevitable outcome of war'. These are children born into an illegal siege, primarily to families who are already refugees from violent displacement. And those numbers are just the children who have been reported. Thousands more are trapped under rubble, left with life-changing injuries, or living with chronic conditions without access to proper medical care. Gaza's health system has been systematically destroyed by the Israeli military. The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Gaza's only cancer facility, was destroyed. Al Amal and the European Gaza Hospital have been forced out of service. There are now no functioning hospitals in Rafah or north Gaza. According to a UN commission, this amounts to the crime of 'extermination'. The testimonies of doctors leaving Gaza, along with evidence from human rights organisations and UN bodies, demand urgent action. The supply of British arms to Israel makes the UK complicit in these atrocities. It is no longer enough to express concern while enabling violence. The UK must immediately suspend arms sales to Israel and uphold its legal and moral obligations under international law. Silence and inaction are not neutral; they are choices that perpetuate suffering. It is time to choose accountability over complicity, and justice over political convenience. We refuse to let these atrocities go unnoticed. We refuse to accept a world in which Palestinians are forced to endure this nightmare in silence. Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan is a paediatric intensive care physician who was in Gaza from 15 February to 26 March as part of a medical team with Medical Aid for Palestinians [See also: Israel's hollow victory] Related
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
‘Deadliest place in the world to be a journalist' — documenting Israel's devastation of Gaza
Palestinian photojournalist Belal Khaled spent 300 days inside the Gaza Strip after 7 October 2023, putting his own life at risk to document the devastation caused by Israeli attacks on the region. Now, he seeks to remind the world's media that silence in the face of genocide is complicity. Please note some of the images may be disturbing for sensitive readers. 'I was always thinking … maybe I'm going to lose my life, maybe I'm going to get injured. Maybe I'm going to lose my house, my family… All of these risks came to my mind, because we are human before we're journalists.' These were the words of Belal Khaled, a Palestinian photojournalist who spent 300 days documenting the devastation wrought by Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip in the wake of the 7 October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 55,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. This includes a large number of journalists working on the frontline. Political leaders and activists in South Africa and other countries have condemned Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide against the Palestinians. South Africa has brought a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention. For Khaled and his colleagues, every day of work has meant confronting the real possibility of injury or death. However, he said, this never stopped him from heading out into the field. 'If we're thinking about this risk and we take a step back, no one in the world will see the truth. No one will take an action against the genocide. We will not get solidarity and support for Palestine, because … if we didn't do this, it becomes a silence, and silence is a part of the crimes also,' he said. Khaled was speaking at an event hosted by the nonprofit organisation Gift of the Givers in Cape Town on 25 June. Damning death toll Khaled called on international journalists to remember and write about the hundreds of journalists who were being targeted and killed in Gaza. 'They are your colleagues. We need to talk about them. We need to tell their stories,' he said. 'I lost a lot of my close friends… More and more of my colleagues — we were speaking on the same things, working together, covering [developments] together — and one day, I lost them. Why? Because they're covering the truth. 'I really would love to see real action on the ground for the Palestinian journalists. I would love to see … a funding organisation, just to fund the journalists there with protection equipment. The people there, they don't have the best, they don't have a helmet.' According to data collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), updated on 16 June, 185 journalists and media workers have been killed in the region since 7 October 2023 — 177 Palestinian, two Israeli and six Lebanese individuals. A further: 113 journalists were reported injured; Two journalists were reported missing; and 86 journalists were reported arrested. The CPJ noted that it was investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, detained, hurt, threatened or going missing, as well as reports of damage to media offices and journalists' homes in Gaza. The United Nations (UN), in a statement on 6 June, condemned the Israeli military's 'pattern of killing journalists in Gaza, which remains the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist'. The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said it had verified the killing of 227 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since 7 October 2023. Fahmida Miller, an international news correspondent and television producer at Al Jazeera Media Network, said that media censorship and restriction of journalists should not happen in any situation, but particularly in Gaza, 'where we are relying on a small pool of journalists to be our eyes and ears'. 'Politics, perhaps, has pushed censorship in newsrooms, but we have to remember that the gagging of journalists can't happen at any time. An attack on a journalist in Gaza is an attack on the profession globally. I think we, increasingly, have to see, accept, and challenge that,' she said. Many of the journalists in Gaza, along with their fellow citizens, are unable to feed themselves and their families, said Khaled. Israeli blockades on aid and supplies to the region have made life increasingly difficult. 'We need to support them… We also need to be their voices when they cannot. They don't have good relations like us here. They don't have time to connect to the world. So, each journalist needs to be a messenger from the journalists in Gaza,' he said. Blockade on truth This month, more than 200 international newsrooms and press freedom advocacy groups, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and CPJ, called on Israel to immediately end its near-total ban on international media entering Gaza. The organisations also called for the full protection of Palestinian journalists. 'Israeli authorities are banning foreign journalists from entering and ruthlessly asserting their control over information. This is a methodical attempt to silence the facts, suppress the truth, and isolate the Palestinian press and population,' said RSF director-general Thibaut Bruttin. The UN stated that the apparent targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, combined with Israel's denial of access to the region for foreign journalists — except for a few visits controlled by the Israeli Defense Forces — appeared to indicate a 'deliberate attempt by Israel to limit the flow of information to and from Gaza and prevent reporting on the impact of its attacks and denial of humanitarian assistance'. DM
IOL News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Gaza War photojournalist Belal Khaled Tell South Africa: 'If this isn't genocide, what is?'
Palestinian journalist Belal Khaled shares a powerful firsthand account of surviving and documenting the Gaza genocide during a Cape Town solidarity event. Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ Independent Media Palestinian photojournalist Belal Khaled, who spent 300 days documenting the war in Gaza, shared his searing personal testimony at the 'Journalism on the Frontline' event in Cape Town, offering South African journalists and academics a firsthand account of what it means to report from within a genocide. Hosted by humanitarian leader Dr Imtiaz Sooliman of the Gift of the Givers, the gathering brought together media professionals, journalism scholars, and solidarity activists for a night of reflection, resistance, and remembrance. But it was Khaled's words, raw and unfiltered, that pierced the room. 'We are not just journalists, we are also witnesses, and we are a part of the story,' Khaled said. 'In Gaza, you don't cover the story, you live it.' The event also featured a screening of 'Eyes of Gaza', a photo exhibition of frontline images, and a panel discussion on censorship, fear, and the global failure to protect journalists. Khaled called on international media to stop being afraid to name what is happening. 'More than 55,000 people have been killed. If this is not genocide, what is it?' Khaled, who returned to Gaza on October 7 to document the Israeli bombardment, spoke of the unbearable emotional toll of surviving while others around him perished. 'Maybe I survived with my body, but we didn't survive with our souls. We're dying every day when we watch our families, my family, my neighbours, my colleagues, suffer, and we cannot do anything.' He described how Palestinian journalists worked without the most basic necessities, no offices, no homes, and often, no food or water. 'We didn't sleep. Totally. Because the massacre was happening from morning until night. There was no specific time for bombing.' Despite the relentless danger, Khaled said there was never a choice to walk away. 'If we turn off our cameras, the truth disappears. Each crime must be documented. These are not numbers, these are names, lives, families.' Khaled lost dozens of colleagues during the war, including some of his closest friends with whom he shared tents and assignments. 'I lost a lot of my close friends, because they were covering the truth.' Speaking directly to fellow journalists, he said; 'If we didn't do this, if we didn't show the truth, the silence would become part of the crime.' The panel discussion that followed saw leading journalists respond to Khaled's testimony with both reflection and resolve. Fahmida Miller, an international correspondent, addressed the global silence and selective outrage. 'There is a hierarchy in terms of which journalists matter and which don't,' she said. 'Attacks on media in Gaza have not been met with the same condemnation we've seen in other conflicts. It took far too long for many in the profession to speak out.' Miller emphasised the importance of access and accountability. 'The gagging of journalists can happen anywhere, and what we've seen in Gaza is censorship taken to its most brutal form. An attack on a journalist in Gaza is an attack on the profession globally.' Kevin Bloom, senior writer at the Daily Maverick, offered a raw and deeply personal reflection. 'I was raised as a young Zionist. I went to Jewish day school. I did IDF training. But after October 7, I had to confront the lies I was taught,' he said. 'Now, I write in the first person because the stakes are so high. My family calls me a self-hating Jew, but I know the truth has to be told.' Bloom didn't hold back in his criticism of organized denialism. 'Everything that comes out of the mouths of the SA Zionist Federation, the Board of Deputies, the Chief Rabbi, it's a lie. And it's a murderous lie.' As Gaza remains largely inaccessible to international reporters, Khaled reminded the world that truth is still alive, through those willing to risk everything to tell it. IOL News
The Herald
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald
Gaza photographer finds humanity in every picture
News Acclaimed lensman Belal Khaled opens exhibition of his photographs of Middle East conflict at Gqeberha museum Premium By GUY ROGERS - 23 June 2025 An acclaimed photographer from Gaza is on a visit to Gqeberha where he described each death and injury in the war-torn Palestinian strip as an agony for him. Belal Khaled, 33, who is exhibiting his photographs in the South End Museum, said on Sunday though he had taken countless pictures of death, destruction and heartbreak in Gaza, each one had a back story...
IOL News
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Palestinian journalist Belal Khaled reveals the harsh truths of the Gaza conflict
Palestinian photojournalist and graffiti artist Belal Khaled speaking at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg. He is in South Africa to share the story of the 20-month bombardment of Gaza, Palestine, by Israel. Image: Supplied Belal Khaled has not been in combat in the past 20 months that his homeland, Gaza, has been experiencing death and destruction by Israel, but the Palestinian photojournalist and graffiti artist uses his craft instead. Khaled is in South Africa to share the story of the almost two-year bombardment of Gaza by Israel, which has left around 60,000 dead and many more still unaccounted for. On Friday, he shared his journey since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Khaled was in Doha, Qatar, on that day, but he immediately left for his homeland upon realising that Palestinians could face a hard war. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ 'I did not think about the risks to my life,' he recalled his return on October 8 through Egypt. Khaled said he wanted to get into Gaza before its borders were closed and also to be with his family. His mother, he explained, was shocked when he arrived home unannounced, as she knew he would be on the frontline working and documenting his compatriots' stories. 'It is always on my mind that you are going to be shot, killed, or injured. I didn't care because all of us are going to die. In Gaza, you don't care about that,' Khaled added. Already, more than 250 journalists have been killed by Israel, but he is undeterred by the risks he faces daily. Khaled believes Israel targets journalists because of the fear that they are informing the world about the conditions of Palestinians. 'I have to tell my colleagues' stories. We prefer to stay away from our families to protect them. A lot of my colleagues have lost their families,' he added. His family's home was bombed in the first month, which he maintains was due to his work, and his mother and sister were injured but have since recovered. Khaled said that while Israel has not allowed any international media to cover the ongoing genocide, Palestinian journalists have lost limbs, their children, as well as their workspaces, which were destroyed in the first week of Israel's war on Gaza. 'But none have stopped working. This is our resistance,' he stated. Palestinian journalists have been operating from their cars and put up tents in hospitals, which have also been bombed, and used them as their offices and places to sleep. However, this means little sleep as they often wake up to screams and have no choice but to cover the stories of the injured. 'All our days are between bombed houses and hospitals. It's too heavy on us, even when you're tired. They (the victims) are not just numbers; each victim, each massacre must be documented,' Khaled said. 'The mental health of journalists covering the genocide is adversely affected, but they have not sought any professional help, even if they cannot mourn the dead. 'Mental health is the last thing on journalists' minds. We are so focused, worried about the killing, starvation, and death. We don't have the luxury to think about it. When we lose someone, we don't have the luxury of sadness,' said Khaled. Their job, he further explained, was to also carry victims and comfort them. 'Gazans talk to each other to heal their souls; we prefer this to therapy,' Khaled said, adding that there is always the realisation that there are others who are experiencing more suffering. He continued: 'We always remind ourselves that you don't have the luxury of choice.' Khaled is hopeful that the work of Palestinian journalists will eventually help bring justice to the victims. 'Human life is more important than photos. If you have a chance to help someone, you help,' he said. Palestinians, Khaled said, blame governments that support Israel, which he declares wants to erase Gaza, but still believe in the free people of the world. 'This is the first genocide being broadcast live, 360 degrees,' said Khaled. In addition to Israel's war, Khaled indicated that Palestinians were also fighting social and mainstream media networks. 'There is also a social media war against us. Facebook, Meta restricts and deletes our content,' he complained, maintaining that the Palestinians' truth is always hidden. Israel's biggest ally, the US, has no interest in stopping the war and is punishing everyone supporting Palestine, as witnessed across universities in that country, according to Khaled. He said Palestinians have remained in their land throughout the two years of the war, but as soon as Israel started another conflict with Iran, their citizens began to leave after missiles hit several targets.
