Ceasefire Announced Yet Silence Falls | Gaza Journalist Saleh Al-Jafarawi Killed

Reena Hamad, News Section Editor

A sea of Gazans walk along the coastline in hopes of returning to what is left of their homes // AFP

Late on the night of October 8th, reports emerged that the first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza has been signed by both Israeli and Palestinian parties. By early Thursday morning, officials confirmed an agreement built on three primary components: a hostage exchange, the long-awaited entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza after a relentless blockade, and a phased withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces. 

As the news spread, Gazans began to make their way back to what were once their homes. A sea of broken families, weary elders, and even lone children were pictured that day moving north on foot, retracing that somber road with newfound hope. Many, however, could not find them. The coordinates of their lives had been practically erased–entire neighborhoods flattened and memories buried beneath the rubble. After two years of ceaseless death, starvation, and loss on every front, the Gazan people were allowed a moment amidst the chaos to mourn their loved ones, and their city–to exhale. But not for long. 

On Sunday, October 12th, that shallow breath was cut short again when it was confirmed that Saleh Al-Jafarawi, one of Gaza’s last remaining journalists, had been killed. He was shot by Israeli-backed militia in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. Friends who had reported him missing were later seen bidding his lifeless body farewell. Just days earlier, Al-Jafarawi had been seen walking through the streets before dawn, with a smile that had not diminished for a moment the past two years, waking those who no longer had internet connection or electricity with the hopeful news of the ceasefire. 

This ceasefire offered Gazans a fleeting glimpse of relief and enough time to grieve all those who did not live to witness this long-awaited moment. Among them was Anas al-Sharif, who was killed on August 10th and had been the beloved journalist to announce the last ceasefire to the world on Al Jazeera in January earlier this year. The world now mourns that he was not here to announce this one; him, and the more than two hundred other journalists murdered in Gaza over the past two years. 

Despite repeated threats and platform takedowns from Israeli forces attempting to silence his reporting, Saleh Al-Jafarawi refused to let the story of Gaza be told only by the voices of its occupiers and upheld the integrity and truth of the profession until his final breath. 

According to the International Federation of Journalists, no comparable toll has been recorded since the organization’s founding in 1926. That includes the second world war, Vietnam, Korea, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, making Gaza “a graveyard for journalists in contemporary history.” The Committee to Protect Journalists has since urged the international community “to hold Israel to account for its unlawful attacks on journalists.” 

The devastation unfortunately extends far beyond the press. Gaza now faces what is being described as the “largest orphan crisis in modern history.” In the most recent death toll published on October 7, 2025, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in the past two years, with thousands more still missing or stuck under rubble. At least 20,000 of the death toll are children, meaning that at least one child was killed every hour. Of what used to be about 2.2 million people in Gaza, one out of every 33 Gazan has been killed. At least 169,000 Palestinians have been injured, with UNICEF reporting that around 4,000 children in Gaza have lost at least one of their limbs.

These are the ruins to which Gazans return to.

These are the conditions in which the current “ceasefire” stands amidst. 

This is the life Gazans are left to live.