‘I remember that child when he screamed and died’

A little girl comforts her mother after they were injured during an attack north of Gaza’s Nuseirat camp. Photo by Fadel Mghari.

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Fadel Mghari had a camera. It was destroyed months ago and the Gaza-based photojournalist has been unable to obtain another one since. Yet he has continued to capture harrowing images from the enclave under siege by the Israeli army since the October 7 attack, using his smartphone to document the bombings and their bloody consequences.

His work was enough to get him a gig at Al Jazeera, albeit only on a freelance basis. The network does not provide him with any equipment and only pays for the photos and videos they choose. Fadel uploads the images that have not been purchased by Al Jazeera to his Instagram. Gaining internet access is a constant challenge; often he sets up shop amid the chaos in hospitals, where Wi-Fi connections are most readily available.

In the year since October 7, Israel has restricted foreign journalists’ access to Gaza. This means that almost all information and images from the enclave come from a small group of reporters based there. With Gaza ravaged by bullets and bombs, believed to have killed more than 42,000 people, with most of the enclave in ruins and catastrophic hunger, the challenges these journalists face are unimaginable. The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 128 people have been killed, making it one of the deadliest wars for the press in history.

Unlike international correspondents who parachute into conflict zones with crews and security to report on unfolding events, reporters like Mghari live every day without respite from the war they cover.

I have kept in touch with Mghari since the beginning of this conflict. In a recent conversation, he said he has limited access to food and clean water. Several of his colleagues and loved ones have been murdered in the past year. Yet every day he rushes to the scene of the last bombing or airstrike to capture the moment on his phone in the hope of giving the world a glimpse of the reality in Gaza.

“I approach this responsibility with extreme caution and with great fear for my family and myself,” he said. “Many of my colleagues were murdered in their homes, bombed and smashed to pieces.”

Much of what Mghari captures on his smartphone is footage of the aftermath of attacks on the ground or in hospitals around Gaza, where Mghari was born and now lives in the Bureij refugee camp. The experience takes its toll.

“The hardest part is looking at the children, and they are young children, and seeing some of them taking their last breaths for you when you are completely helpless,” he said. “You’re confused.”

Mghari provided Mediaite with graphic images of a lifeless child killed in a bombing earlier this week. “I saw him take his last breath and his brain was outside his head,” Mghari said.

In a video taken by Mghari, a baby lay on a hospital stretcher with what appears to be a head wound. The baby lets out a whispery cry as a doctor frantically tries to administer life-saving measures while a man watches and cries.

In another video, Mghari captured the aftermath of an October 1 attack on a group of children playing football at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

The chaotic images showed bloodied children, some unconscious, others semi-conscious, being rushed to al-Aqsa hospital. Several children had their limbs torn off.

“These are unforgettable things that accompany me in my sleep,” Mghari said. “I remember that child when he screamed and died. I’m really tired. I hope this all ends.”

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