© 2023 FdR / NAEL GHABOUN
From the Gaza Strip we only get news through Palestinian journalists on the ground. None of 'ours', none of Western journalists were there before 7 October. They were busy elsewhere. The Strip? Asleep. That was the response from Western newsrooms. Is this enough to make us doubt the numbers of civilians killed? No, it is not enough. Although some try to doubt.
Faccia da Reporter offers those who read its daily updates from the Gaza Strip, thanks to Nael Ghaboun, a Palestinian journalist with whom Gianluca Grossi has worked for years. Today, Nael cannot be reached via WhatsApp. We texted him:
"Are you OK?".
No reply.
At 3.58 p.m. today he replied: 'Yes'.
When I asked him if he had any new pictures, he replied:
'We have some bad news. Close relatives killed last night. I was busy looking for more information about them'.
We depend on Palestinian journalists in the Strip, just as, at one point during the war in Syria, we depended on local journalists, as it had become too dangerous for international media outlets to send their own correspondents.
What to do? Believe them? Not believe them?
Not believing them would force us to believe only one side of this conflict, which has civilians as the main target of its military campaign. Is it possible to believe only one side? No.
Never would be, and especially never is in war.
So we wait for Nael to get back to us and send us one of his dispatches.
Gaza marks the end of official, so-called scholastic journalism, of which we are (were) so proud in the West. It was distracted journalism.
Yes, Gaza marks its end.
(gianluca grossi)
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