The words of Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Mahmud Hams were overlaid by the echo of two explosions in the space of a few minutes. On the night of Thursday, October 12 to Friday, October 13, the Israeli air force pounded Gaza. "Our working conditions are abominable. We risk our lives everywhere under the bombardments, both when we travel and when we stay in the office. We've already had to evacuate our offices in central Gaza twice, after they threatened to destroy our building," explained the journalist. The Israeli army sometimes sends text messages or calls on residents to evacuate certain buildings before destroying them.

It was after one of these calls from the Israeli army that Saeed al-Taweel, editor-in-chief of the Al-Khamsa News website, and his two colleagues Mohammed Subh and Hisham Alnwajha lost their lives. They are among the eight local journalists killed since the start of the bombings in retaliation for the Hamas attack that began in the early hours of October 7. According to the Gaza authorities, more than 1,537 people have lost their lives and 6,612 have been injured since then. Six days after the Hamas attack, no foreign journalists had access to the enclave.

In the early hours of October 10, while covering the evacuation of the Haji Tower, a residential building in the Rimal neighborhood in the west of the city, the bomb struck more than 100 meters from the target previously designated by the Israeli Defense Forces. Alerted by a resident who had received a call from the Israeli army asking him to evacuate the premises in anticipation of an imminent attack, the three journalists had gone to the scene to document the Gaza inhabitants's fleeing.

In the darkness, as the camera on his phone captured the panic of the last remaining residents, al-Taweel's final words were heard: "Unfortunately, they've just sent a warning to the Haji building that it's going to be bombed. The whole area has been evacuated. Women, men, the elderly and children have fled the area." The three men thought they were at a safe distance. Their helmets and bulletproof vests were of no help. That night, entire blocks of the neighborhood were razed to the ground.

In tribute, these helmets, which have become an essential accessory worn by media professionals in Gaza, were placed by their colleagues on their remains, covered in white sheets, when the bodies were collected from the hospital a few hours later.

"We've never faced a situation like this before. It's a total war. Death is in the houses; death is in the streets; death is everywhere," explained photographer Mohammed Abed, adding, "The simple fact of moving around, of going to the Gaza hospital between two reports to assess the toll of the bombardments, is an insane risk. We are local journalists and photographers. We have families who have to move from one neighborhood to another as the Israelis strike. Our colleagues are dying; their loved ones are dying... and we have to carry on doing our job. We've gone into robot mode: navigating between the dead and our fears for the lives of our loved ones."

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