03 January 2025 | CPJ
Areej Shaheen killed in Israeli airstrike on her family home
Missile strike
Areej Shaheen, a Palestinian freelance photographer, was killed on January 3, 2025, when Israeli airstrikes hit her family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to multiple news reports, her brother and a colleague, both of whom spoke with CPJ. The strike also killed Shaheen’s mother and injured her father.
Shaheen, 32, posted photos and news updates about the war in Gaza on her Instagram page, which had more than 13,000 followers.
“Areej was covering all the shelling near her home in the Nuseirat camp, and she was constantly present at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah and the Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza,” her friend, neighbor, and fellow journalist Safenaz Al-Louh, told CPJ. “When Areej began documenting events during the war, it was based on the premise that photography is a message, and people have a right to have their suffering conveyed.”
The journalist’s brother, Ayman Shaheen, told CPJ that his sister studied accounting but loved photography and began to take classes to specialize in covering weddings and happy gatherings.
“But during the war the parties stopped and based on the fact that photography is also a message, she began documenting the crimes of the Israeli occupation in central Gaza through video and photography,” Ayman Shaheen told CPJ.
Read the original article here.
