Hussam Shabat

Hossam Shabat (; 10 October 2001 – 24 March 2025) was a Palestinian journalist who reported on the Gaza war as a correspondent for Al Jazeera Mubasher and also contributed to Drop Site News.

Shabat was killed by an Israeli airstrike on 24 March 2025, after Israel ended the ceasefire established in January 2025 by resuming airstrikes on Gaza. Shabat and another Palestinian journalist, Mohammed Mansour, also killed by the Israeli military on 24 March, are among the at least 208 journalists and media workers who have been killed in the Gaza war as of that date.

Journalism during the conflict Around 27 October 2024, Shabat described life as a journalist in Gaza as being someone who is "hunted". Shabat faced numerous challenges, including displacement from his home in Beit Hanoun, threats from the Israeli military, the destruction of his family's restaurant, and the loss of 30 family members. Despite these hardships, he continued his reporting, often working on an empty stomach and living in accommodation centers.

On 23 October 2024, the IDF accused six Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera in Gaza, among them Shabat, of being fighters in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al Jazeera denied these accusations and described them as based on "fabricated evidence". Shabat said these were fabricated dossiers designed to frame him as a "terrorist" and that accusations were to make him and his colleagues "killable targets", adding that they constituted death threats against him. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the documents published by the Israeli military on Shabat "severely lacked proof these journalists were affiliated with the military and in no way granted a licence to kill". RSF said the accusations against Shabat were part of an "all-too-familiar pattern [which] fuels the unprecedented massacre of journalists happening in Gaza". In July 2024, Israel killed Ismail al-Ghoul, another Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza that it had accused of being affiliated with Hamas.

On the following day, the IDF confirmed that it had deliberately targeted Shabat, accusing him of taking part in attacks on Israel without providing verifiable evidence.

Shabat's colleague Anas Al-Sharif participated in the funeral procession. He told Drop Site News that he was determined to continue reporting despite Israeli threats. In August 2025, Al-Sharif was himself killed in a targeted strike by the IDF along with four other journalists and two civilians during the Gaza War.