Ramallah – Nisaa FM - On this World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, we give the floor to Al Jazeera English's Gaza Strip correspondent Youmna El Sayed. She covered the war for 72 days while constantly fearing for the lives of her husband and four children:

On day two of the war, there was a huge bombardment on the telecommunications company in Gaza City. Israel decided to completely destroy the sole telecommunications company in the Gaza Strip, which made it extremely difficult for us to communicate inside Gaza and to report to the outside world.

This communications company was in my neighbourhood. I was reporting live at the moment that they bombed it, and I was looking at where the missiles were going. I saw that the area that was being attacked was very close to my home. All I could think was: how close will the missiles hit to our home, how close will they get to my children?

 

I wasn't able to reach my husband. I wasn't able to reach my children. I tried to call and call in between reporting live on air. I tried to contain myself, restrain myself. I tried to continue reporting. But I'm reporting about my own neighbourhood. I'm reporting about my family being in danger and thinking: are they going to be safe?

Since the war started on 7 October, this was the feeling that stuck with me all the time. I was constantly terrified that I might come home and find my children dead. Or that I would never be able to return home myself because I would be targeted and killed.

At the same time, as a journalist, I had a strong sense of duty to my people. I studied English which means I speak the language of the international community that we're calling out to every day: Look at us, watch us. We're being slaughtered. See us, hear us.

This was always my motivation. And this is the motivation that keeps every Palestinian journalist going. With very little food, with very little rest, with immense suffering and a lot of pain, they're still going.

From day one, there have been journalists, camera operators, producers, risking their lives every single day for the world to see what is happening in Gaza. It’s complete courage. It's remarkable. There are no words to describe the role of Palestinian journalists who, to this day, are still covering the slaughter of their own people, their own families, the destruction of their own homes, their own land. And they are still standing to tell the story.