" We had to keep true to the gruesome facts, but there was also the fear that such coverage would further demoralize the Gaza audience, what was left of it " Hanan al Masri, Al Arabiya TV "As journalists we knew what we were up against. It was a PR war Israel fiercely wanted to win as much as it was an Israeli war on unarmed civilians, mothers and children, already squeezed to death by a devastating blockade," Masri recalled, adding that Israel's war has been the most important and difficult moment of her five years with Al Arabiya.
With an Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza to report on the war, coverage on the ground fell to native Palestinian journalists like Masri, who has worked there since 2004 covering the Second Intifada, the Hamas takeover of Gaza, the Israeli blockade and countless permutations of the peace process.
“We had to keep true to the gruesome facts, but there was also the fear that such coverage would further demoralize the Gaza audience—what was left of it,” she said. |
Hanan and her husband Basil and children still feel the trauma of the Gaza war Masri started her 12-hour shift at 6 a.m. each day and spent another four hours in the field following story leads while trying to avoid the bombs raining down on Gaza.
Speaking from her hotel room in Cairo where she is on leave with her family, Masri said her goal during the war was to find the balance between providing the most extensive, detailed coverage to the outside world while at the same time keeping in mind the average Gaza viewer living through the war.
"Covering the events of the war was a challenge professionally because as a journalist I was targeted along with my colleagues for doing our job,” said Masri. "At the same time, we were civilians like everyone else in Gaza, facing uncertain danger and imminent death in our homes, on the street as we commuted to work and in the media building where we covered the news," she said. |
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Inside the war Al Arabiya TV staff resumed coverage via Ramattan offices after Israel bombed the media tower Doing journalism in a warzone like Gaza, where Israeli troops targeted media outlets in a policy at odds with international law, was not easy. Two days before Israel and Hamas declared unilateral ceasefires was among the most harrowing.
On Jan. 16 the Israeli air force struck the media building housing several foreign and pan-Arab media outlets including Reuters, Fox News, and Al Arabiya. The Israeli missile hit the building destroying parts of it and injuring two Al Arabiya journalists.
Reuters reporters in the office across the hall reported they had confirmed their coordinates with the IDF after having provided the Israelis with the same information at the start of the war, but the building was nonetheless hit. |
" Following the warning was the air strike on the media building. The excuse later announced by IDF pilots for bombing the tower housing media outlets was that a Hamas fighter was seen firing from above on the rooftop " Masri, Al Arabiya TV Masri said Israeli forces asked Reuters staff to leave the tower that morning after confirming the coordinates because of security concerns on the streets but never mentioned that the media tower was in danger.
"Following the warning was the air strike on the media building. The excuse later announced by IDF pilots for bombing the tower housing media outlets was that a Hamas fighter was seen firing from above on the rooftop," said Masri, who was preparing to go live on air when she heard a blast below. |
"But this is implausible as no Hamas fighter or anyone would dare expose himself and come in full view under the surveillance of a hundred drones and fighter planes."
(see AlArabiya.net’s Video Forum http://evideo.alarabiya.net/ShowClip.aspx?clipid=2009.02.15.13.03.18.362)
Reuters correspondents reported seeing no fighters in the building prior to the strike.
The airstrike came during some of the fiercest fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters on the ground in the southern neighborhood of Tal el-Hawa, overlooked by the media tower stuck in the midst of combat. |
Al Arabiya TV camera man was injured when IDF airforce bombed the media tower in Gaza "Cameras were on 24 hours every day videotaping the tanks lined up in the streets and soldiers darting in and out of shattered buildings. Bombing the tower was an attempt to prevent coverage of the fiercest stages of the war as the pressure on the Israeli army was mounting," Masri asserted.
The strike cut off live coverage for the rest of the day, forcing Masri and the rest of the foreign and Arab media personnel to evacuate the tower for several hours.
With the help of the Palestinian news agency Ramattan, a satellite rental, mobile phones and short wave radios, Al Arabiya TV was back on the air from Gaza within two hours |
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Politics in the war zone " I have only experienced cooperation from Hamas, who could not afford to expose themselves most of the time so tended to rely on both Arabic and foreign media to inform us of their activities " Hanan al Masri, Al Arabiya TV The war made visible Gaza’s deep political divides as supporters of Fatah and Hamas fought over the paucity of resources remaining in the impoverished Strip.
“During the blockade prior to the war, some backed Hamas and others backed Fatah and then there was the silent majority,” Masri explained.
“While Hamas supporters got special rations and so did those behind Fatah, the silent majority who neither expressed their support for either group were left to fend for themselves.”
Rumors by Israeli media agencies that Hamas harassed media personnel in the war zone circulated in the aftermath of the attacks, but Masri said she never witnessed the alleged harassment.
"I have only experienced cooperation from Hamas, who could not afford to expose themselves most of the time so tended to rely on both Arabic and foreign media to inform us of their activities," Masri said, adding that the fighters were rarely visible on the streets and seemed to spring up from nowhere during clashes with Israeli soldiers. |
" My family and I are always in fear despite knowing that we are out of the war zone. It is a persistent feeling that remains with you when you have seen death but managed to make it out alive " Hanan al Masri, Al Arabiya TV "Hamas would send me and my colleagues mini press releases via text messages on mobile phones, detailing how many rockets they fired and from where and which faction. They openly admit to firing rockets as a form of resistance," Masri said. "We would then check with our correspondent in Jerusalem, Ziad Halabi, who would confirm these reports before we aired them on Al Arabiya TV."
Despite nearly a month of an uneasy truce Masri said she and her family have not been able to shake off the uneasy feeling that danger lurks around the corner.
"My family and I are always in fear despite knowing that we are out of the war zone. It is a persistent feeling that remains with you when you've seen death but managed to make it out alive."
Nevertheless Masri will shortly head back to the Gaza Strip to cover the latest efforts to achieve a lasting peace, a goal many analysts have said will likely be more difficult after the Israeli elections seemed to favor the hard-line right.
* To see Marwa Awad’s interview with Hanan al-Masri visit
http://evideo.alarabiya.net/ShowClip.aspx?clipid=2009.02.15.13.03.18.362 |
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