Among those living in a displacement centre is Dr Tahseen Al Asttal, vice president of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, and the union’s leader in Gaza. The 52-year-old spent the weekend touring around approximately 1,000 journalists, mostly encamped close to the Nasser hospital in the city, distributing emergency wound treatment kits, provided by the International Federation of Journalists.
“Journalists are afraid about the anticipated scale of the bombing, as well as the likely impact of the expected occupation to come”, he told me over WhatsApp. “Communication networks are not working well, so staying in touch is difficult. We also don’t have enough protective equipment and helmets”.
Their fears are well-founded. Ten journalists have died in Gaza in the last week, as well as one in Lebanon. An Israeli photographer died during Hamas’ invasion.
No foreign journalists remain in Gaza, confirms the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem. What information we have from the 141 square mile territory, is coming from Gazan reporters and camera operators.
The level of fear among these already battle-hardened journalists, however, is unusually high. “The usual instinct of reporters is to go to where the shelling is happening, but the danger here today is extreme”, says Al Asttal, whose day job is a journalist and tv director. “PJS is advising camera crews to stay in the south of Gaza for their own safety”.
Life here is still tough, he says. “Food and water are very scarce, the electricity keeps cutting out and we struggle to connect to the internet. I’m here with my extended family, living in a single room. All of our children are clearly very, very afraid”, he says.
Al Asttal is deeply grateful for the help that Gazan journalists have already received, but says that much more is needed – particularly safety equipment and battery power packs.
The wound treatment kits that he distributed were sourced in the West Bank, and paid for, in part, by a £20,000 donation to the IFJ’s International Safety Fund, sent by the UK and Ireland’s National Union of Journalists at the end of last week.
Nasser Abu Baker, the president of the PJS, who is based in the West Bank told me: “We fear that a humanitarian catastrophe is about to unfold, and Palestinian journalists will be on the front line. Our determination is to ensure that, whatever happens in the next days and weeks, the world has a clear, unvarnished picture of what happens. Impartial, accurate ethical reporting is paramount. I fear that many more will pay with their lives and I appeal to journalists the world over to find ways to lend their support in this darkest hour”.
Tim Dawson is deputy general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists