Malak A Tantesh on fleeing the Israeli ground offensive in Gaza and becoming a reporter in the most dangerous place on Earth for journalists
Malak A Tantesh is a journalist in Gaza. On 16 September, the day Israel began its full-scale ground offensive Gaza City, she was among those trying to flee the city. As she hurriedly packed up for her 11th displacement in the last 18 months, she recorded voice notes. “We all say that we don’t want to leave, but we deeply know that we have no other choice,” she says.
She tells Lucy Hough what it has been like to be displaced so many times while trying to report on the events around her, all at just 20 years old. When Israel’s blockade of the strip led to hunger and famine, it became hard to work: “I was covering stories about hunger and famine, and I was myself hungry. I was feeling that I am about to collapse. We were eating one meal a day.”