Another journalist has been killed in Gaza. Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammad Salhi was hit by an Israeli strike on Thursday morning while covering the aftermath of an earlier attack in the Nuseirat refugee camp. He becomes the 136th media worker to die since the conflict began, according to press freedom groups.
The Foreign Office has called for restraint, but for the families of the dead, these are hollow words. Each statistic is a father, a son, a colleague. Salhi’s body was pulled from the rubble hours later, his camera still recording. The images, if they survive, will not show his final moments.
I have spoken to journalists in Gaza who describe a war fought not just with bombs but with silence. The world watches through their lenses, and when the lenses are smashed, the world looks away. The Israeli military says it does not target civilians. But the numbers tell a different story. More media workers have died in six months than in any single conflict in modern history.
For the families of the dead, there is no justice. Only the hard ground of the cemetery. For the living, there is only the work. They pick up the cameras of the fallen. They film the bombs. They file the reports. And they wait for the next strike.
The Foreign Office statement calls for de-escalation. But what does restraint mean to a man who has already lost everything?