Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian Journalist Wafa Aludaini Alongside Her Entire Family

Aludaini, a prolific journalist dedicated to mentoring young women writers in Gaza, wrote for Jezebel in 2022 about the horrific conditions Palestinian women face in Israeli prisons.

By Kylie Cheung  |  October 1, 2024 | 1:00pm
Twitter/ Writers Against the War on Gaza In Depth Journalists
Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian Journalist Wafa Aludaini Alongside Her Entire Family

On Monday morning, Israeli forces appeared to continue their targeted campaign against Palestinian journalists, killing reporter Wafa Aludaini and her entire family in their home in Central Gaza via airstrike. Aludaini, her husband Munir, their five-year-old daughter Balsam, and their seven-month-old baby Tamim were all killed in the attack. Aludaini is widely recognized as one of the most prolific Palestinian journalists writing in the English language for a variety of outlets—including Jezebel in 2022, for which she wrote an extensively reported feature on the horrific conditions that Palestinian women face in Israeli prisons.

Aludaini was a frequent contributing writer at the Palestine Chronicle, which first reported on her tragic death on Monday. Romana Rubeo, her editor, told Jezebel the entire staff was “deeply saddened” to learn of Aludaini’s death. “Wafa dedicated her life to truthfully documenting the Palestinian struggle, becoming a vital voice for those silenced by the Israeli occupation and siege,” Rubeo said. She added that one vital piece of Aludaini’s legacy will be her hand in guiding a new generation of Palestinian women storytellers, as a mentor and teacher who placed a “special focus on empowering women in the field of journalism.” 

“Many of her students were young women, whom she encouraged to challenge societal norms and tell the untold stories of their people,” Rubeo said. “Through her mentorship, Wafa not only strengthened the voices of Gaza’s youth but also helped empower a new generation of female journalists, paving the way for their leadership in the fight for truth and justice.”

Aludaini’s last post on Twitter is a colorful image of sand sculptures by the ocean, “sending greetings and peace to Beirut” as Israeli forces escalate attacks on the city in Lebanon. She frequently shared updates about the horrors she witnessed on the ground in Gaza amid Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinian families like hers. On September 21, Aludaini shared news of a massacre at a school-turned-shelter where she found “child body parts are scattered everywhere,” writing, “The videos that I have are so horrible, I am sorry I couldn’t upload them. We will witness more massacres like this as long as the world leaders sit back and watch.” 

Within days, Israeli forces would kill Aludaini and her entire family.

Since October, Israel has killed at least 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 174 journalists. In 2023, 75% of journalists killed that year were Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. At least 16,700 Palestinian children like Aludaini’s five-year-old and seven-month-old have been killed by Israel, including at least 710 newborns.

Earlier in September, Aludaini shared her reporting on what back-to-school looks like for children in Gaza amid Israel’s relentless war, in which she interviewed young children and shared the disturbing statistic that “over 90% of Gaza’s school buildings have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombardment.” As bombs continued to fall around her, she reported on the horrific murders of Palestinian families sheltering near her own, shined light on heroes in her community, and documented the joy and resilience of Palestinian children.

“Wafa’s commitment to journalism was deeply personal. As a refugee, her reporting was more than just a job—it was her way of reclaiming her people’s narrative. She was not only a journalist but also a storyteller of her own community’s pain, resilience, and longing for freedom,” Rubeo told Jezebel. “Despite the constant threat to her life, she continued her work undeterred, insisting that the world see and hear the truth from Gaza.”

Aludaini’s reporting for Jezebel in 2022 centered the voices and stories of Palestinian women who survived the unthinkable in Israeli prisons—abandoned, forgotten, and altogether erased by the rest of the world:

Israel has arrested over 16,000 Palestinian women since 1967, according to Addameer, and multiple human rights organizations have documented the cruel, degrading treatment women Palestinian detainees face while in Israeli detention—including torture, sexual degradation, denial of family visits, solitary confinement, poor or nonexistent medical care, and lack of education. Inside Damon, [former prisoner Nisreen Abu Kmail] endured what she called “a living hell.”

Nisreen was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint in 2015 for allegedly spying for Palestinian resistance groups and was sentenced to six years in prison despite a dearth of evidence presented by Israel. “Being trapped in the draconian Israeli prison quickly overwhelms and ferociously devours our lives,” Nisreen told Aludaini. Aludaini is one of the only journalists who told her story. 

In the same story for Jezebel, Aludaini spoke to former prisoner Samar Sobeih, who was pregnant when Israeli forces detained her and refused to provide essential prenatal care. “Throughout her pregnancy in the jails and after she gave birth, she recalls the prison guards saying to her, ‘You are a terrorist, and soon you will put a new terrorist into the world,’” Aludaini wrote. Samar eventually gave birth in the prison, which she described to Aludaini as a “very harsh and inhumane” experience, and which, as Aludaini put it, was “amplified by the fact that it was her first child and she was separated from her family.” Samar’s hands and feet were handcuffed to a hospital bed during the C-section. “Baraa left my womb, entered another tomb,” Samar told Aludaini. 

Aludaini also included the story of another Palestinian woman prisoner who could no longer breathe through her nose after an accident that left her horribly disfigured, and, as of 2022, was still being denied medical care from the Israeli prison where she’s been held since 2015. She also shared the stories of incarcerated mothers who haven’t seen their children in years, of guards seizing gifts children prepared for their mothers on the rare occasions they were able to visit. “When I was released, my children could barely recognize me. And my 6-year-old son didn’t hug me; he felt I am a stranger,” Nisreen told Aludaini for Jezebel. “I cried. It felt like the occupation stole not only my freedom but my entire life.”

Aludaini told these stories long before the events of October 2023, and even in the face of unending attacks and threats on her life in the months since, she endured and continued her indispensable storytelling. Her peers remember her as “the peak of kindness, happiness, and tact,” and “a courageous and crusading journalist who cheated death to expose the Zionist genocide.”

“Wafa fought against distorted narratives in mainstream media. She believed that journalists have a moral duty to uncover the truth, challenging mainstream media’s misrepresentation of her people and standing for justice and humanity,” Rubeo told Jezebel. “Her courageous voice will never be forgotten, and her work will continue to inspire future generations of journalists and truth-tellers.”

 
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