Motaz Azaiza
معتز عزايزة
Photojournalist who became Gaza's 'eyes and ears' · 1999– · Deir al-Balah refugee camp, Gaza
Motaz Azaiza spent 108 days documenting Israel's bombardment of Gaza for an audience that grew into the tens of millions before evacuating to Qatar in January 2024; TIME named him one of the 100 most influential people of 2024.
Motaz Azaiza, born in 1999 and raised in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp, studied English literature at Al-Azhar University and began photographing daily life in Gaza for Instagram. When the war began in October 2023, he spent nearly four months — 108 days — documenting the bombardment: families displaced from their homes, women mourning their dead, rescuers digging people from rubble. With foreign journalists barred from Gaza, his raw footage, shot in a press vest and shared with millions of new followers, made him, in TIME’s words, “the world’s eyes and ears in his native Gaza.”
In January 2024, after 108 days of coverage, Azaiza evacuated Gaza and relocated to Doha, Qatar. TIME named him to its TIME100 list of the most influential people of 2024, and his photographs have since been exhibited internationally.
From exile, Azaiza has continued to advocate for Gaza and for the Palestinian journalists still working there, many of them his former colleagues. “I evacuated my beloved country Gaza, but I promised myself to make our message reach the world,” he has said, urging audiences not to stop talking about Gaza.
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Based in Doha since his evacuation, he continues to exhibit his work and speak internationally on Gaza and the protection of journalists.