Hossam Shabat
حسام شبات
Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent in northern Gaza · 2001–2025 · Beit Lahia, northern Gaza
Hossam Shabat, 23, was killed when an Israeli drone strike hit his car in Beit Lahia days after Israel broke the Gaza ceasefire; Israel claimed he was a Hamas sniper, an accusation first leveled in October 2024 that Al Jazeera and press-freedom groups rejected as baseless.
Hossam Shabat, 23, was a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher covering northern Gaza, his home region around Beit Hanoun, where he continued reporting through eighteen months of war despite repeated threats. In October 2024, the Israeli military publicly accused him and five other Al Jazeera journalists of militant affiliation — a claim the network and press-freedom organizations rejected as unsubstantiated, and one that CPJ warned placed the journalists’ lives in danger.
On March 24, 2025, days after Israel resumed full-scale bombardment of Gaza, breaking a two-month ceasefire, an Israeli drone strike hit Shabat’s car near a petrol station in Beit Lahia, close to the Indonesian Hospital, killing him. The Israeli military and Shin Bet said they had “eliminated a sniper terrorist” from Hamas’s Beit Hanoun battalion who was “also employed as a journalist by Al Jazeera.”
Knowing he was likely to be targeted, Shabat had written a letter to be published after his death: “If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed — most likely targeted — by the Israeli occupation forces… Do not stop speaking about Gaza.” UNESCO’s director-general condemned his killing and called for a thorough investigation, and the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression had earlier denounced the accusations against him as a smear campaign.
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UNESCO's director-general condemned the killing and called for an investigation; CPJ has classified his death among Israel's deliberate targeting of journalists.