After weeks and months of deliberation, argument and bloody-mindedness, and just three days past the 2nd anniversary of 'Israel's' war on Palestinians in Gaza, a ceasefire suddenly came about. While this was no doubt the plan - and thus the acute timing for 'israel' to achieve its goals, it still came as something of a shock. The experience of this moment was beautifully described by Al Jazeera's correspondent Hind al Khoudary, as she visited families in a tent camp somewhere in Southern Gaza. Hind has given a woman's touch to the reporting from Gaza, where so much has happened which was traditionally 'men's business', and which women's special sensitivities around children might make it too emotionally stressful. Her report was one of four from the reporters on Al Jazeera English who have been with us for almost two years, and avoided the fate of so many others, assassinated by the occupier's army.
But just as Hind coped with the traumatic sight, smell and sounds of injured and dying children, so Al Jazeera's male journalists have displayed the best of humanity and forbearance, even as their colleagues are picked off by israel's terrorist army and its monstrous weaponry. In the next video clip, Hani Mahmoud reports from once-familiar streets of Gaza city, where people now search in vain for their homes, and for relatives left behind or lost:
The extent and level of destruction of buildings in this part of Gaza city – not far from the sea coast – is shown in the following video, and discussion with Hani Mahmoud in the evening following his walking tour. As he notes and emphasises, much of the worst destruction has only happened in the last few weeks, since the IOF deployed its forces right into the city, using truck bombs to clear the way. Unlike those used by Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria to destroy key buildings like the Aleppo teaching hospital and Jisr al Shughour National Hospital, these explosive-laden army vehicles were robot controlled. While ‘israel’ would surely not resile from using Palestinians to drive suicide trucks, they mightn’t be trusted to do the right thing. No israeli soldier would have the guts and the passion to give his life for such a cause, though not from lack of belief in it.
The cowardice of israel's most moral army was well illustrated by the GHF, or 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' - which took advantage of starving people's desperation to engage in a 'turkey shoot'. In the next clip, AJ's Tareq Abu Azoum visited the Netzarim corridor, so recently the scene of these barbaric shootings, and found ample evidence of what happened there - spent bullets, sound grenades and other munitions remains, but astonishingly, not a trace of GHF's encampments and their military partners. The Netzarim corridor in which he stands was cleared of any buildings as well as vegetation early on in the war
More recently reporting from Gaza than the three above, Ibrahim Al Khalili has ventured into dangerous territory in the north, following the likes of martyr Anas al Sharif, but here talks to one family who have found a place to ‘live’ in some way or another. It is fitting that the young mother in this story has two children born since 2023 with IVF – and before the IVF clinic was destroyed by ‘israel’ along with the frozen stocks of 4000 potential fertility treatments.
Four brave and steadfast reporters who together are worth more than all the self-engrossed and bigoted israelis in ‘Hostage Square’ waiting for their relatives to be returned.
DM October 13th 2025