Remembering Palestinian Journalist Hossam Shabat
Hossam Shabat, 23, was assassinated by Israel a year ago today, as he reported for Drop Site and others on the genocide of his people in Gaza.
One year ago today, on March 24, 2025, the Israeli military assassinated our colleague, Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, in an airstrike in Beit Lahia. Shabat, 23, was a Gaza correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher and a contributor for Drop Site News. He filed his last story for Drop Site hours before he was killed.
Shabat was one of a handful of reporters who remained in northern Gaza through Israel’s genocidal war and was repeatedly threatened by the Israeli military. In October 2025, he was one of six Al Jazeera journalists who was placed on a hit list by the Israeli military. At the time, Shabat said he felt like he was being “hunted.” Israel openly bragged about Shabat’s killing the next day saying, “Don’t let the press vest confuse you, Hossam was a terrorist.”
To mark the anniversary of his death, Hossam’s brother, Wissam Shabat, also a journalist, wrote: “My brother…I lost you before my eyes, and I was helpless, unable to do anything. That moment still lives within me every single day. You were martyred for the sake of truth, because you spoke what had to be said and revealed what they tried to hide…You were a hero, and you will always be.”
The Israeli military assassinated another journalist on the hit list, Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, and five other journalists in an airstrike on a media tent in Gaza City in August. Since October 2023, Israel has murdered over 260 journalists and media workers in Gaza in an unprecedented killing campaign of journalists.
Like other Palestinian journalists in Gaza, Shabat knew he would most likely be targeted by the Israeli military and wrote a letter to be published posthumously in the event of his death. In it he wrote, “If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed — most likely targeted — by the Israeli occupation forces.” He ended with: “I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
We will not let the world look away.
Journalists have the right to exist.