The Grave that Lives Inside Him

In August, five Al Jazeera journalists were killed in a targeted Israeli strike in Gaza. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 186 journalists have been confirmed as killed since the start of October 2023. Rana Sabbagh reports on the life of a Palestinian journalist she keeps in regular contact with – for whom journalism is about survival, memory is resistance, and grief colours everything

Mohamed Abu Shahma left his singlet hanging on a rusty nail by the door – the one marked ‘press’ in fading white letters – and stepped out to buy some bread one day last March. Minutes later, his house was bombed into rubble.

The blast destroyed more than his walls. It took Mohamed’s winter coat; the mattress on which his youngest daughter, two-year-old Massa, cried into the night whenever a rocket fell nearby; and his laptop, storing months of interviews – some published, others that never would be.

Just two months earlier, he had moved his family into the rented house in Khan Yunis. He had used up his remaining assets and taken a loan from a friend to secure the deal. The only saving grace is that he survived – and few in Gaza can count on that.