The +972 Podcast

The only eyes on the ground

• +972 Magazine

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More journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 than in any other conflict since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data in 1992. According to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Israel’s onslaught has killed 250 media workers to date. Yet despite facing conditions without parallel in the history of modern warfare, journalists in Gaza continue to bear witness. With Israel barring foreign reporters from entering the Strip for nearly two years now, Palestinian journalists have shouldered the entire burden of informing the world about the ongoing genocide, reporting on a story that is also their own.

In this episode, Ruwaida Amer reflects on the difficulties of reporting from Gaza, where the atrocities she documented –– massacres, destruction, displacement, and starvation –– are inseparable from her own lived experience.

Additional Reading:
Ruwaida Amer’s archive at +972 

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Theme music by Ghassan Birumi


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Ghousoon Bisharat:

Welcome to the +972 Podcast, your direct line to the journalists, thinkers, and activists struggling for justice in Israel-Palestine. I’m your host, Ghousoon Bisharat, editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine. Our podcast grounds the discussion in lived realities to bring you closer to the issues that matter most between the river and the sea. Before we dive in, a quick reminder that what we do would not be possible without you, our readers and listeners. If you believe in our mission and would like to support our work, head over to 972mag.com/members and find out how to become a member of 972 or make a one off contribution. Gaza is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, perhaps even the most dangerous. As of mid-September 2025, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has recorded the killing of 246 journalists and media workers by the Israeli army in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in any other conflict since the organization began tracking such data in 1992. Foreign journalists are barred from entering the Gaza Strip, yet local reporters have spent nearly two years risking their lives to document what is happening. Without their courage and persistence, the world would have almost no window into life inside this besieged and isolated enclave. In this episode, I speak with Ruwaida Amer to hear what it’s like to bear witness on the front lines, why her reporting matters, and how she keeps going in the face of an unfolding genocide. Ruwaida is a regular contributor to +972 Magazine, who was, before the war, a full time science teacher and part-time video journalist. Since October 2023, she has become a full time journalist and is struggling to find the energy and space to keep teaching as well. To create this episode, we pieced together a video chat, phone call, and voice notes — the result of constant internet and tele-communication interruptions that reflects the daily challenges Gazan journalists face in their work, alongside the even greater struggle to survive.

Ruwaida Amer:

Can you hear me? I'm trying to be very fast before the internet cuts. Yalla?

Ghousoon Bisharat:

Thank you for joining me on The + 972 Podcast. I know how difficult it is for you to find a place with good internet connection. Dedicate time and gather the energy to talk. So tell me where you are staying now with your family.

Ruwaida Amer:

Yes, I displaced my home in Fukhari area for three months, last May, 21 May. We didn't know where can we go. I was in my aunt’s place, her home. It's not good place, by the way, because also destroyed during the war and I lived in her home for two months also in Khan Younis refugee camp. Then we left her place and spent many days in the streets looking for any place to live in. After many days, we found place in Khan Younis refugee camp. All the places in Khan Younis City destroyed, but we found place to stay and with my family, we are like seven members, eight members in one place. It's not like good for this number, but it's not places available in Khan Younis or in the in Khan Younis refugee camp, because there's many people displaced from many areas.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

How is life in the refugee camp these days? Can you describe the scene around you?

Ruwaida Amer:

The life in the camp is very hard because there's many people here. All the displaced people coming to the camp or to the west of Khan Younis City near Mawasi area. So here's many people. They are living in the shelters, in the streets, and the tents camp like this. So the situation in the camp is very hard. We spent many days in the streets, without any place. Then we found like home, it's not good home. It's destroyed. And like, it's not good place. I can't describe the home here, because there is many bombing I think targeted this home, and there is no doors, there is no windows, there is no walls here. You live in darkness with terrible sounds. Like this, my life, it's very hard. It's very hard to hear the bombings, because there is bombing every time. Bombing explosion around you, and you you saw the smoking everywhere around you and the sounds of ambulance and the people when they shouting,“Help! Help!” I’m seeing this. I’m hearing the sounds in my dreams. And the sounds in my head. It’s too much.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

In the last two months, you also reported about starvation in the Gaza Strip. How did you go about, you know, reporting and working when you were hungry with no energy at all.

Ruwaida Amer:

Sometimes I stopped my work. I can't, I couldn't work more. Until now we have hunger. Okay? We don't have meat, we don't have fish, we don't have eggs, we don't have vegetables, we don't have fruit, just some simple things enter to Gaza Strip. To buy one kilo of any type of vegetables or fruit, you need 40 or $50 So it's too expensive. When I opened my social media, I saw the people shared their meals, their types of meals, they ate everything they want so it's very hard for me to see the world live normal but the people in Gaza live in war and they don’t have any food to eat. It is very hard to work without energy. You need energy for work, for think about your situation, so your worry every time about the bombing. When you worry and feel scared from the situation around you, you will lose a lot of your energy. Okay, so we feel very hungry. We need to eat because we see the people die because they are hungry. It's very hard feeling to say I'm hungry. It's very shame to say I'm hungry. Very hard thing, okay, hungry and to looking for water and how you can fill your gallons. Because the water is very important for the people. Maybe I want to wash my hands, my face, maybe I want to drink. And also, if I want to go to any place, film story or to meet the people, I need to walk, because there's no cars. I walk too much. Last one week, I spent four hours, four hours, we spent the most of our day in the walking to arrive, the places. Also, if I will

Unknown:

arrive, they are bombing around you in many places so I don't know if I'm in safe place or not, if I will back to my family or not, if I will survive or not. I can't say

Ruwaida Amer:

enough about

Unknown:

this moment and I can't describe them.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

Can you walk us through your day to day routine?

Ruwaida Amer:

Your mind is very busy during the day. It's very busy because you need to think about everything around you, the water, electricity, if you have a charger in phones, and laptop, if you can complete your work or continue work, if you want to go to the work, if it's place this place, it's good or not safe or not, the bombing in this area or not. Every detail in our day is very difficult. It's not easy. Looking for water, food, electricity, charge your phones, your laptop,

Unknown:

caring about your family, connect with or to call your relatives or your friends, your colleagues, for your work. So it’s very hard daily routine. Then, when the night comes it will be also very hard, because it's not easy to sleep for an hour without bombing sound.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

So can you just explain to me a little bit about, you know, how you work in Gaza?

Ruwaida Amer:

Our work in Gaza during the war, it's like, super difficult, because sometimes we don't have internet. Many times I looking for internet in the streets. About the electricity I need to charge my phone or my laptop. The journalists go to the hospitals because there's electricity, not every time, but there's electricity, internet. They also covering what's happening in the hospitals. It's very hard for the journalists. Okay, we are not heroes. We are not Superman, Superwoman, we are suffering from the war, from the many displacements every time, lack of food, lack of water, lack of rest.

Unknown:

I’m not sleeping very well from the beginning of the war.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

On August 25th, Israel carried out a double strike on Nasser hospital that killed five journalists, including your friend Maryam Abu Daqqa. Back then you wrote an article for +972 Magazine about Maryam and the targeting of journalists in Gaza. Can you tell me you know a bit more about Maryam, and how did the killing of Maryam and this specific attack on the journalists in Nasser hospital affected you?

Ruwaida Amer:

Yeah, Maryam, she, she, she's my friend, still my friend. So

Unknown:

when I heard her, news she, she killed. I was so surprised I heard it, the bombings, because I'm near hospital. When I check my phone, I found her news Maryam Abu Daqqa killed in Nasser hospital. Until now, I feel so sad because she she didn't deserve this. She was just

Ruwaida Amer:

working

Unknown:

uh, and overing, because she's journalist, so it's her normal job or her normal work.

Ruwaida Amer:

She was so proud because she covering for the International website, like Associated Press. So she was so proud, because she wants to tell the world what is happening in Gaza Strip. Maryam also had very big responsibility about her family, her father, her sister and brothers, and her son. And I'm still very sad about her, and she like but she, I think, I'm not think, I'm very sure she's in good place now, and she will be in rest. I hope that. it's so sad to read the news about journalists killed one by one killed during the war, When I see my friend, my colleagues killed by the killing by many times, yes, I will feel very scared okay, okay, because there is no protect of us. The journalists in Gaza Strip, they are covering what's happening in Gaza. If they will not covering what's happening, the world will not know what's happening in Gaza Strip.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

Your career is unique. You are a science teacher and a journalist. How did you get to doing both?

Ruwaida Amer:

Yes, so I'm working as a teacher, as a science teacher, okay, but also I have like, hobby and talent to write. I told all the world, I'm a teacher. I'm not just a journalist. So during the war, also, I didn't stop my work as a teacher, because I have responsibility about them. They lose their education years for two years. Okay? Because when you teach the children, you feel like builds people, build good people, build good thinking. Also, I want to tell you, when I teach the children in the tent, and told them about the information. I repeat the information for more than five times because they don't have, like, the focus. I think also it's very hard because they are very tired. They don't have energy for that. The children lose their families. Many children lose their places or homes, and also lose their two years

Unknown:

of their education. A lot of the children or students don't know about the basic subjects like science, math, and Arabic and English. So we need to help them, to teach them about it. And we will start on the third year. So it will be very terrible for them. They will lose a lot of skills, and we will, like, rebuild from zero. I'm also wrote about them in my articles. I have many stories about my experience as a teacher, my experience with them during the war, because I was many students. They were children, and they had future, and they had a dream, but they killed during the war. From the beginning of the war, I'm caring, to meet the children every time, to talk, to teach them, science, to drawing, to talking with them. That gave me positive energy to continue to work more and more, to write articles, to make videos because I feel there is very important voices, sounds. I need to to tell the world about them. So yes, the my meetings with the children change my mood, my energy to good, to be focused more, to have good mood to continue my work in journalism. During my work as a journalist, also, I can't tell the world about the children's stories. Children and women, they are the group most affected by the war- their lives, privacy and like in the tents or in their displacement places. Like, the children they lose their childhood. So I like to cover their stories every time. Any side of their stories, their lives, their experience during the war I like to focus on by articles, by videos, by anything, because they deserve to be in good life, not in displacement.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

Do you feel, Ruwaida, that people in Gaza now are less keen on talking to the media, talking to you, the reporters in Gaza? Did they give up on the need to tell their

Ruwaida Amer:

So the people in Gaza Strip, we are, they are stories? following the news every moment. If there's new agreements between Hamas and Israel, if there will stop the war, very soon, or not and some people support to talk about their stories. Some people said, no, we talk enough about our suffering, but there is nothing changed. We are talking without anyone hear us. There's no ceasefire, there's no open to the borders. There is no stop the bombing. So why? Why we want to talk more and more? I think we need international journalists from out Gaza to come to Gaza and help us, support us. I don't want to not talk about all the journalists. I want to talk about myself. A lot of times, feel very hard and very tired, and I don't have energy to write article, to film any story, video story or documentary, because I don't have energy. I don't have good mood to be good and to be strong. I don't want to like cover more and more and more.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

Does your family ask you to stop reporting?

Ruwaida Amer:

My family are very, very worried about me and sometimes they said, stop. Sometimes they said, continue. When I move between the areas I don't know if I will back to my family or not. The targeting of the journalists in Gaza Strip. It's very hard. More than 200 journalists killed during the war. It's very terrible number. I don't think there's number in the world before this war. So it's like, make me to go to be crazy, to lose my mind, because I need to think every time. I need to cover the events around me. But it's nothing is stopped. Also, we are human, and we have families, and we need to caring about ourselves, our families, our loved people, so our energy, like between our work, our family, our our relatives. So it's very terrible to hear

Unknown:

there is journalists killed by bombing, by targeting directly, like this. Like Maryam Abu Daqqa. All the people, not just me, all the world, saw the moment of her killing, when the bombing targeted her directly on live TV. So it's very hard. I'm still very sad about her, because we lose very beautiful, active person. She loved her work too much. She loved to cover everything. She loved, loved to to document what's happening in Gaza every moment. And she was so excited to the

Ruwaida Amer:

moment to say the war is over. So I'm so sad to lose her, and so sad

Unknown:

because I will not hear sound again and to meet her again like this.

Ruwaida Amer:

But if the journalists stop their work the people will not know what's happening in Gaza Strip, the war is not stops still working until now, still targeting everything. Until now, there's bombing everywhere. There's displacement every time. There's hunger also, and there's a lot of problems because of the war. So we need to cover it and help stop the war very soon, because we deserve to take rest from everything around me, around us. We are super tired, and we we need to to take rest and stop the war and back to our normal life and think what we can do after the war. How is our life will be? Our dreams, our future. We have a lot to think after the war. So we need our energy. We need our patience for our life after the war. So we need this war to stop very soon. I hope

Unknown:

to cover the moment of the end of the war in Gaza Strip after two years. Thank you so much.

Ghousoon Bisharat:

Inshallah, Shukran, Ruwaida. Thank you, Ruwaida. This episode was produced by Jennifer Cutler with help from the +972 editorial team. Make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave us a review — it really helps new listeners find the show. Visit 972mag.com for in-depth reporting, analysis, and opinions from the ground in Israel-Palestine. And don’t forget to download the +972 app and subscribe to our newsletters. +972 Magazine is an independent, nonprofit media outlet home to Palestinian and Israeli journalists committed to equity, justice, and freedom of information. Now more than ever, independent media is essential. Please visit 972mag.com and click “Support Us” to become a member or make a one-time donation. Every contribution helps us continue to bring you reports and analysis from the ground — truthfully, critically, and without compromise. That’s it for the +972 Podcast. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.