Cnn
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Fatima Hassouna, a war documentary maker who had covered the conflict in Gaza on the ground for 18 months, was killed with seven family members in an Israeli strike this week.
“If I die, I want a resounding death, I do not want myself in urgent news, or in number with a group,” wrote Hassouna in an article on Instagram in August 2024. “I want a death that the world does not hear, an effect that remains for the extent of the ages, and the immortal images that the new document next month.
On Friday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza told CNN that Hassouna’s parents survived the strike on Wednesday, but that the two had suffered essential injuries and are in an intensive care unit.
The Palestinian Journalists Protection Center (PJPC) said it was crying for the loss of Hassouna. He said the strike that killed his target targeted his family’s house on Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City and also killed several of his family members. He described the attack as a “crime” against journalists and a violation of international law.
“The powerful photos of Fatima documenting the life under siege were published worldwide, highlighting the human assessment of the war,” said the center.
Israeli defense forces (FDI) said on Wednesday that the objective was “a terrorist at the Gaza City of Hamas’ City Brigade” and that measures have been taken to mitigate the risk of prejudice to civilians. “The terrorists planned and executed terrorist attacks against the TSAhal troops and Israeli civilians,” the FDI said in a statement without providing details.
Fatima’s cousin, Hamza Hassouna, told CNN on Friday. “I was sitting when suddenly two rockets fell, one next to me and one in the living room. The house fell on us and everything was a disaster,” he said.
Hassouna published her photos on Facebook and Instagram, where she had more than 35,000 subscribers. His images documented the challenges of daily life in Gaza and the threat of living under the Israeli bombing.
It was presented in the Documentary Film of Sepideh Farsi, Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk, which was selected to be screened in the ACID section at the 78th Cannes Festival in May 2025. A declaration by a director described the film as “a window, opened by a miraculous meeting with Fatima” in the “Massacre in progress of the Gestestinians”.
After the news of the death of Hassouna, the Iranian director shared a photo on social networks on Friday on Friday stretching in front of the camera with Hassouna, who was smiling. “My last image of her is a smile. I’m hanging on it today,” Farsi wrote alongside the image.
Addressing CNN on Friday, Farsi said that Hassouna was “a very brilliant and solar person, had an incredible smile and was an optimistic person by nature”. The director said that she had worked with Hassouna for more than a year on the documentary and that they knew each other very well.
Farsi said the last time she had contacted Hassouna was one day before her death to give her “good news” about the documentary. “We both discussed her trips to France in May to present the documentary to Cannes with me because she is the main protagonist,” said Farsi.
“I thought it was a mistake when I heard about his death,” added Farsi. “I hope this documentary will highlight his life in Gaza and serve as a tribute to her memory.”
According to the PJPC, the number of journalists who died in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, has increased to 212, an unprecedented toll according to many groups of journalists. The organization has called on the international community to open an immediate investigation into the incident and to take up officials to report.
The neighbor of Hassouna, Um Aed Ajur, described Hassouna as proud of the work she was doing. She called into question the strike on her house, saying that she and her family “have no connection” with any group. “We have been neighbors for 35 years and we have never heard that they are connected to any (group),” she added.
The last Hassouna post on his Facebook page was a series of Gaza fishermen’s photos by the sea last Saturday, less than a week before his death. She posted the photos with a short poem.
“From there, you get to know the city. You enter it, but you do not leave, because you do not leave, and you cannot,” she wrote.
Lauren Izso de CNN contributed the reports
