The Photojournalist
Probably it was the cover of the haunting footage of the destruction of Al Shati Camp by Israeli warplanes that led Abdullah Al Hajj to be targeted by an Israeli drone on 24 February, 2024.
The strike was devastating. Ever since that hit, Al Haj had been confined to a bed in Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Like Abu Omar, both of his legs had to be amputated. Today, he is in critical condition and doctors say he needs to be moved out of Gaza to get the right medical care he desperately needs.
“My goals largely contradict the goals of the occupier: My goals are to stop the youths of Gaza from emigrating by showing all that is beautiful about Gaza…It is completely different from what the [Israeli] occupier is trying to show that is to destroy all what is beautiful in this Strip.”
Abdullah, who worked as a photojournalist for UNRWA, was tracked by a reconnaissance plane as he was taking aerial images of the harrowing bombings of the Shati Camp and north Gaza as it was being systematically destroyed and bulldozed by Israeli planes and missiles.
At first it wasn’t clear whether he’d survived the attack. “When he was brought in, his situation was difficult, Dr Fadi Sukkar told the Al Jazeera satellite channel.
“He was on artificial ventilation, suffering from sever infections and his back is filled with traumatic wounds that needs skin grafting, he added.
Al Hajj, thus, needs further treatment and surgery that is not available in Gaza and therefore needs to leave the enclave.
In addition, he needs to be fitted with prosthetics which are not currently available in Gaza and has not been before that, since Gaza had been under a tight Israeli blockade since 2007.
Message to the world
“My message to the world is clear and simple, to look at Gaza with compassion and mercy and we must enforce laws against genocide.”
Since 7 October, the Israeli army has systematically targeted journalists of Gaza. The Gaza Media Office pointed out 133 journalists have been killed in Gaza till now.
Head of the Palestinian Press Association (PPA) Nasser Abu Baker and speaking in Rabat last February said the number of Palestinian journalists killed stood at 10 percent of the 1300 media workers that belong to the PPA Gaza branch.
The fact that the attacks on journalists in Gaza is a violation of international law and the Geneva Convention is being systematically ignored by Israel, its politicians and army as they made it an undeclared policy to fatally target journalists.
Marwan Asmar is a journalist based in Amman covering Middle East affairs.
20 March 2024
Source: countercurrents.org
