Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi killed by armed group in Gaza City

Sulaymaniyah, October 16, 2025 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the killing of Saleh Aljafarawi, a 28-year-old freelance Palestinian journalist who gained prominence on social media for his war coverage. He was shot and killed on October 12, 2025, reportedly by members of an armed Palestinian group in Gaza City, just days after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement.

“Saleh Aljafarawi’s killing highlights the ongoing dangers that journalists in Gaza face, even after a ceasefire agreement has been reached,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s Regional Director. “CPJ urges all parties in Gaza to keep journalists out of the line of fire and to allow them to report freely and safely — to inform the world, not to become the next victims among their fallen colleagues.”

On October 12, violent clashes erupted in Gaza City — primarily in the Al-Sabra and Tel al-Hawa neighborhoods — between Hamas security forces and armed factions, including groups linked to the Doghmush clan and a militia led by Yasser Abu-Shabab, who is reportedly backed by Israel to weaken Hamas’s control. The fighting followed Israel’s partial withdrawal from parts of Gaza, creating a power vacuum that fueled internal rivalries.

“He was in Al-Sabra to document the destruction left after the Israeli withdrawal, and armed men cooperating with the Israeli occupation shot him,”  Saleh Aljafarawi’s father, Amer Aljafarawi, told CPJ.

He said his son was clearly identifiable as a journalist at the time of the attack — wearing both a press vest and helmet — and that his killing was deliberate, denying reports that his son had been abducted prior to his death.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s governmental media office, told CPJ that Aljafarawi “was killed by gunfire from one of the gangs while covering the security forces’ clash with them in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City.”

Aljafarawi left behind a farewell letter to be shared in the event of his death, which was posted on the social platform X after he was killed. “I have tasted loss many times, yet I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is — a truth that will remain a testimony against those who were silent and an honor for those who stood firm,” it read.

He had previously been injured on February 15, 2024, when an Israeli drone strike hit the area between Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He was helping evacuate doctors fleeing Nasser Hospital when the missile struck, wounding him with shrapnel in his right hand, he told CPJ at that time.

Saleh’s killing adds to the toll of 197 other journalists who have been killed in Gaza, all by Israel, since the war began.