Amjad Al-Jahjouh

Their life

Amjad Al-Jahjouh (1985-2024) was a Palestinian journalist and educator whose life and work centered on documenting the destruction of Gaza's civilian infrastructure under Israeli bombardment. Born and raised in Nuseirat refugee camp, he earned a degree in Arabic Literature from Islamic University of Gaza before spending a decade teaching at UNRWA schools, an experience that deeply informed his later journalism career. As an investigative reporter for Palestine Now since 2019, Al-Jahjouh specialized in covering Israeli attacks on educational facilities and residential areas, often risking his life to film raids in progress.

Amjad Al-Jahjouh (1985-2024) was a Palestinian journalist and educator whose life and work centered on documenting the destruction of Gaza's civilian infrastructure under Israeli bombardment. Born and raised in Nuseirat refugee camp, he earned a degree in Arabic Literature from Islamic University of Gaza before spending a decade teaching at UNRWA schools, an experience that deeply informed his later journalism career. As an investigative reporter for Palestine Now since 2019, Al-Jahjouh specialized in covering Israeli attacks on educational facilities and residential areas, often risking his life to film raids in progress. His final investigation exposed the military targeting of UNRWA schools being used as shelters, work that was cut short when an Israeli airstrike destroyed his home on July 6, 2024, killing him and his journalist wife Wafa Abu Dabaan. Colleagues recovered his last notes amid the rubble, including unfinished documentation of a recent market bombing that killed 22 civilians. Remembered for his meticulous fieldwork and commitment to preserving Gaza's historical memory, Al-Jahjouh was posthumously awarded the Golden Shield for Journalistic Courage, while his unpublished materials continue to be used in international war crimes investigations. His death, part of what the Committee to Protect Journalists calls "the deadliest period for media workers in modern history," underscores the extreme risks faced by those documenting Gaza's humanitarian catastrophes.

How they died

Simultaneous fatal injuries from missile strike

A plea from the family

The surviving family of Amjad Al-Jahjouh and Wafa Abu Dabaan have transformed their grief into an unrelenting campaign for justice after the journalist couple was killed in an Israeli airstrike on their Nuseirat home on July 6, 2024. Amjad's elderly parents, who miraculously survived the strike that obliterated the family compound, now care for their orphaned grandchildren while demanding international accountability, displaying their son's bullet-pressed vest and shattered camera at press conferences as evidence of what they call "the deliberate extermination of Gaza's truth-tellers." His brother Khaled, a schoolteacher, has become an unlikely spokesperson, submitting meticulous documentation of the attack to the International Criminal Court, including timestamped photos proving the strike occurred during daytime hours when the journalists' presence would have been visible to drone surveillance. "They didn't just kill my brother - they executed the very concept of bearing witness," Khaled told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where he presented Amjad's last unpublished footage of children digging through rubble for textbooks.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Amjad Al-Jahjouh, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources