Fatima Hassouna, a rising Gaza journalist, died days before her wedding; IDF says Hamas was the target
Fatima Hassouna, a 25-year-old photojournalist from Gaza and the subject of a documentary set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, was killed in an Israeli airstrike this week along with ten members of her family, including her pregnant sister. The strike took place on Wednesday in northern Gaza, just days before Hassouna was due to marry.
Hassouna had captured the world’s attention with her haunting images from within the war-torn enclave. On social media, she once wrote: “If I die, I want a loud death… an impact that will remain through time.” Her words have now echoed across global headlines.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed the strike but said the intended target was a Hamas operative involved in planning attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. The military claimed that “measures were taken to minimise civilian harm,” including aerial surveillance and precision-guided weapons.
Hassouna was also the central figure in Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, a documentary chronicling her life as a frontline photographer in Gaza. It is scheduled to debut at Cannes in May.
The IDF said the strike was part of a broader campaign involving the bombing of 40 locations across Gaza in the past 24 hours. These targets reportedly included weapons depots, militant hideouts, and tunnel networks. Palestinian sources said 24 people were killed in total.
In Rafah’s Tel Sultan and Shaboura areas, Israeli troops ambushed Hamas fighters and destroyed key infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood, IDF reservists uncovered and demolished a weapons cache and several tunnels using the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit.
The military said it aims to expand a buffer zone along Gaza’s northern border. The Shejaiya area, they noted, provides a vantage point over Israeli communities such as Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza, and Sa’ad, which were attacked during Hamas’s October 7 assault on Israel.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency, 10 people died overnight in Khan Younis in a strike that levelled several homes in the Bani Suhaila area. The agency also reported 14 more deaths in separate attacks across Gaza, including alleged strikes on tents housing displaced civilians. The IDF did not comment specifically on these reports but reiterated that it targets militant infrastructure and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
In a separate development, the IDF acknowledged complaints from troops over a lack of food amid kosher-for-Passover constraints. Maj. Gen. Mishel Yanko, head of the Technological and Logistics Directorate, visited Gaza to investigate. Reports had surfaced of soldiers subsisting on matzah and chocolate spread for days without a hot meal.
The latest surge in violence comes after the IDF resumed full-scale operations in March, ending a fragile two-month ceasefire. Despite international mediation efforts, no new truce has materialised.
Israel has stepped up military pressure in an attempt to force Hamas into agreeing to a hostage deal. Around 59 hostages remain in Gaza; 24 are believed to be alive. The rest are presumed or confirmed dead.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. The Israeli government said it has since killed approximately 20,000 Hamas combatants in Gaza. According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 50,000 people have been killed or are missing, though the figures do not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
As the toll rises and high-profile civilian deaths like Hassouna’s make international waves, the war’s human cost continues to fuel calls for accountability and resolution, while the conflict grinds on with no clear end in sight.
