Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza leaving from Gaza
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Twenty-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza who has become Gaza's voice, will be leaving Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.
On Tuesday, he emotionally announced his departure from the war-torn Gaza Strip in a video that has been circulating across social platforms.
In the shared video, the photojournalist expressed his decision to evacuate and hoped to return soon to help rebuild Gaza.
"This is the last time you'll see me with this heavy, stinky [press] vest," Azaiza said in the heartfelt clip on his social media.
Taking to ‘X’ formerly Twitter he wrote, “I had to evacuate for a lot of reasons you all know some of it but not all of it.”
“Thank you all. Pray for Gaza”, he added.
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Azaiza has been one of the key media forces in the besieged Gaza Strip, bringing live updates of the Israel-Hamas war to his more than 18 million followers on Instagram and over a million on X.
Azaiza’s Instagram posts are often flooded with comments asking about his well-being, especially when he hasn’t posted on his social media for a while. He has often posted videos and gone live on his Instagram documenting Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, where he can be seen sheltering amid the rubble of demolished homes.
Azaiza’s work initially focused on photographing everyday life in Gaza, before he began covering Israel’s wars in Gaza in 2014 and 2021.
His Instagram following has grown exponentially from 25,000 to 18 million in just over 100 days since Israel began its military campaign in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack.
https://twitter.com/azaizamotaz9/status/1747422924217159852
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Death toll of journalists, media workers
More than 80 journalists, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the October 7 attack, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Of those, 18 were working at the time of their death.
The United Nations Human Rights commissioner has expressed concern at the high death toll among media workers in Gaza. The first 10 weeks of the war have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with most journalists killed in a single year in one location, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.
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