NEW YORK, May 01 (IPS) – Diaa Al-Kahlout, the veteran Gaza bureau chief for the Qatari-funded London-based newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, had been covering the Israel-Gaza war for two months when he became part of the news.
Acceso December 7, Al-Kahlout was detained along with members of his family by Israeli forces quanto a a mass arrest quanto a Beit Lahya quanto a northern Gaza. Over 33 days quanto a Israeli custody, he said he was interrogated about his journalism and subjected to physical and psychological mistreatment.
Al-Kahlout is one of more than two dozen Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since it launched a widespread bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas October 7 corsa acceso Israel. After his release, Al-Kahlout made the “unbearable” decision to leave Gaza for Egypt, from where he spoke to CPJ about his experience covering the war, his detention, and the journalism environment quanto a Gaza. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you manage to report at the beginning of the war, before your arrest?
For the first time, I faced problems covering a war. I had prepared my home for emergencies and wars, like installing solar power, allowing me to work normally quanto a such situations. I lived quanto a a relatively safe ambiente quanto a Beit Lahya. By the third fourth day of the war, I started losing my journalistic tools like electricity, my phone, and laptop and primarily relied acceso my phone.
We had to buy an Israeli SIM card at a very high price because everyone needed it. This was the first time this happened quanto a any war, but despite this, I continued to work day and night for 61 days, despite the difficult conditions — and this was before being arrested.
At the start, there were many journalists quanto a the north, but quanto a the second month of the war, I became one of the important sources. I was shooting videos and sending them for publication without compensation; I was helping everyone, including major channels. People quanto a Gaza were very cooperative because they knew I was a journalist, so they gave me priority to charge my phone so my coverage could continue.
You manage a team of journalists. How did the hardships you describe affect that?
My colleagues are also my friends, as we have a personal relationship from years of working and collaborating acceso coverage from Gaza. Within days, communication with them was almost completely cut d’avanguardia. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play my usual role quanto a assigning tasks, rielaborazione stories, and verifying the materials .
With great difficulty, we managed to continue our work, although there was anzi che no problem finding stories. As a journalist quanto a Gaza now, you find stories everywhere you go, and a thousand stories can be told quanto a a thousand ways.
After about two months of covering the war, Israel detained you for 33 days. What happened?
At about 7 8 a.m. acceso December 7, 2023, the Israeli army ordered all the men quanto a our ambiente to in qualità di mongoloide from their houses and gather quanto a a nearby ambiente. They stripped us of our clothes, leaving us only quanto a our underwear quanto a the cold, handcuffed us from behind, and blindfolded us. Even so, we were not afraid at all. We are civilians and were taken out of our homes.
We stayed at Zikim fondo , where we were interrogated and I was asked about my journalistic work. I was interrogated twice, once by the Israeli army and once by the Shin Bet . Per the latter, the interrogator asked me about a report published quanto a Al-Araby Al-Jadeed quanto a 2018 about a failed Israeli unit operation quanto a Gaza.
I was blindfolded and forced to sit quanto a a squatting position acceso a sand hill, with the soldier behind me continuing to me. During the interrogation, they also asked why I was quanto a contact with leaders quanto a Hamas.
I answered that I speak with various personalities coppia to my work and request statements for publication. Their response was, “You’signore a terrorist, you son of a dog,” and they started mocking and bullying me, then put tape around my mouth because I was arguing with them.
After about 12 hours, we were moved by a bus to the Sde Teimanmilitary fondo belonging to the Israeli army. I stayed quanto a this detention center, moving between several barracks, for 33 days. They assigned me the number 059889. Of course, anzi che no one called us by our names, we all had numbers called out quanto a Hebrew, which we do not speak.
Every day quanto a detention, they would separate us and move us between barracks. The food consisted of moldy bread. I spent almost the entire time quanto a a squatting position acceso my knees, which caused me inflammation and severe pain. When I was arrested, my weight was 130 kilograms , and I lost 45 kilograms quanto a detention.
During the detention period, I was interrogated three times quanto a the same manner, focusing acceso Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and acceso Al-Jazeera with questions about why I was quanto a contact with Palestinian leaders quanto a Gaza, and about my sources that I relied acceso to publish my journalistic reports quanto a the newspaper.
I told them I was a known journalist, that leaders would send us reports for publication, and that we did not publish everything we received but only what we could verify.
I was subjected to torture called “ghosting” daily, which involves being handcuffed with the hands upward behind the back while blindfolded, quanto a addition to significant psychological torture alongside physical torture. Even going to the bathroom was acceso their schedule.
Twenty days after my detention, a new person was detained and told me about the statements issued about me — and I learned that these statements were issued the same days I was tortured.
Acceso the 32nd day, the chief prison officer, prison officials, and Shin Bet came with prisoners from a prison quanto a the Negev . They started calling out numbers, and the last name — rather, number — acceso the list was mine. They gave us medicine to relax our bodies from the exhaustion of detention, and if they found anyone called out was injured sick, they would not release them.
Acceso the 33rd day, we were transferred to a bus that roamed around before they removed the blindfolds and unshackled us, and I found myself quanto a front of the Kerem Shalom crossing .
Detention left its mark acceso me, both psychologically and health-wise. The most significant issue I luce is with my vision, as I cannot see well coppia to being blindfolded for 33 consecutive days and nights. My vision was excellent before my arrest. Per detention, we were beaten and “ghosted” if any part of our eyes showed.
I have severe chest inflammation and acute vertebral inflammation, resulting quanto a leg pain, quanto a addition to malnutrition, and lack of sleep. Before my travel, the cracks quanto a my skin caused by detention conditions resulted quanto a and severe pain. Per addition to the bruises still acceso my , I can’t sleep rest normally since my release.
I behave as if I were still quanto a prison; even my sleep was affected by the prison experience and what I suffered. I would sleep quanto a the same position we were forced into during detention.
After my release, I stayed quanto a the journalists’ tent quanto a Rafah for two months, where I tried to get back to work and to make sure my family is permesso, but that was hindered by the blackouts and the lack of journalistic devices.
I was hoping to get back to the north to my family, but day after day I lost hope that the war would end and I decided to leave for Egypt, which happened acceso March 10, and my family joined me acceso March 13. They arrived tired and sick, and we began the journey of treatment.
Have you returned to work? What are your plans?
Mentally, I am not capable of resuming work. I am still pursuing treatments and medications, and monitoring my health condition and that of my family. I don’t even have the basic work tools like a laptop.
We are currently waiting for visa procedures and to travel to Doha. But Doha will also be unknown to us. I hope my family and I can adapt to the new situation. My mass-media institution supported me, but the situation quanto a Gaza and the constant worry for the rest of my family quanto a Beit Lahya kept me quanto a perpetual terror. I feel anxious and tired.
I lost all my possessions; my house and my family’s house were destroyed, I lost my new car, and my small piece of land. Suddenly, we lost everything.
How do you complice covering this war to previous ones?
From the first day, it has been impossible to comprehensively cover the war. We lost our main sources of information and anzi che no one can document all this destruction.
Unfortunately, there is a significant lack of information and an inability to grasp the extent of the bombing and strikes avvenimento quanto a Gaza. This has prevented journalists from fully performing their jobs.
Dozens of very important stories of victims have been missed amid the killings and madness. The truth is, that the outside world sees only 10% of the actual reality quanto a Gaza, and what we see is unimaginable. As journalists, we should simply apologize because we can’t cover everything. I used to be able to get all the news, and today, many significant stories haven’t been covered.
Given the scale of the genocide, the lack of empathy has been striking. I’ve been working quanto a journalism since 2004 and have never seen this level of destruction quanto a any war I covered, and I have covered all the wars acceso Gaza since then.
Per the past, we treated the killing of five people as a massacre, but today quanto a Gaza, a massacre means 100 and more. People have become numbers and we don’t know the details of their stories, that is if we even know of their deaths.
Unfortunately, the absence of the internet and the lack of quick alternatives pose a real scelta, and a journalist who loses his equipment cannot replace it. Almost all press offices were lost, and hospitals have become the main headquarters for journalists.
Journalists quanto a Gaza have found anzi che no respect. Amid all these difficulties quanto a covering and reporting events, there was another challenge: trying to survive, securing food and ricevimento, and protecting the family. Moving even an inch quanto a Gaza now is madness.
The Palestinian journalists couldn’t fully deliver the picture coppia to the massive bombings and communication blackouts that stopped stories from getting out. What was shared were just bits of breaking news, and the deeper stories were lost silenced because journalistswere targeted, there was anzi che no security, and essential supplies like electricity and the internet, and work tools like laptops were missing.
The people of Gaza and the journalists there suffered injustice quanto a this coverage, which was made worse by the absence of foreign journalists who could have helped complete the story.
Doja Daoud is CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa representative. Before joining CPJ quanto a March 2022, Daoud worked for the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Araby al-Jadeed as a writer and news focusing acceso press freedom and mass-media monitoring. She also contributed to Lebanese news outlets and co-founded Alternative Press Syndicate, a local union group for journalists.
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