‘I refuse a cheap death’: Israel kills Palestinian journalist in Gaza | Israel-Palestine Conflicts News
A Palestinian writer, poet and journalist was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to his family, taking the number of journalists killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since October 7, 2023 to 220.
Mohammad Hijazi was one of nearly 90 Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling of the besieged area in the past 24 hours, according to a statement from the Gaza Health Ministry on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the Jabalia camp since Israel imposed a military siege on northern Gaza on October 5 and intensified its bombardment, forcing thousands to flee. Israel even prevented aid groups from bringing basic food to the area.
“I don’t know if I will write to you again. I keep what I wrote and write it. Maybe it will show up one day. I refuse to die cheaply. I curse the murderer,” Hijazi wrote on Facebook in August last year.
“Let’s arm ourselves with patience and prayer for what we have come to, count the days we have lived as a historic success, we await what comes with a broken heart, a closed eye, a high head, and a fighting spirit until the end of the road.”
It is not clear whether Hijazi was working for a particular news organization at the time of his death.
Since the beginning of its war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 220 journalists and media workers, including Hijazi.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry reported on Sunday that at least 88 Palestinians were killed and another 208 injured in the past 24 hours.
The latest Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza has reached at least 45,805 since October 2023, with an estimated 109,064 injured.
Among those killed in recent Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday were three Palestinians who were living in a tent in Deir el-Balah, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Gaza.
A family of 15 was also buried under rubble in northwest Gaza City, following a separate strike, Mahmoud reported.
“The Palestinian Civil Defense did everything they could to pull out the bodies from under the rubble, but they pulled out only four family members,” he said.
“It is estimated that there are at least 15 family members under the three-storied building that collapsed.
“These repeated attacks – deliberately targeting families – continue to wreak havoc on the Palestinian people.”
“I refuse to die cheaply… I curse the murderer.”
This morning, writer and journalist Mohamed Hijazi, the author of these words, was killed by Israeli forces in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/LWsCak8IPr
– Ramy Abdul| رامي عبدو (@RamAbdu) January 5, 2025
In the past three days, Israeli forces have killed more than 200 people in Gaza, Mahmoud said.
The last few remaining hospitals across Gaza are now overwhelmed, he added.
In the emergency department of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, many people were left on the floor and others were waiting to be admitted to the operating room, said Mahmoud.
“It will be too late for them – they have already tied themselves to death. [Many] the burn is very bad, and there is no pain medication available at the hospital,” he said.
“There is a silent death. In the past weeks, due to the ongoing attacks, people have been dying silently due to the lack of medical supplies. “
On Sunday, the Israeli army said it had struck more than 100 “terrorist sites” in the Gaza Strip in the past two days. Most of the strikes were aimed at areas where Palestinian forces had been shelling Israel in recent days, the military said.
The latest violence in Gaza comes as indirect talks on a hostage release deal resumed in Qatar.
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been working together for months in efforts to reach an agreement to end the war and secure the release of dozens of prisoners still held in Gaza.
Israel has imprisoned more than 10,000 Palestinians since it began its devastating war, which has brought condemnation from around the world. Rights groups have called Israel’s military attacks genocide, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest court, said in March 2024 that Israel’s actions “clearly” amounted to genocide.
Separately, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
