That is the title of today’s article about the killing of journalist Hassan Eslayeh. Goodbye, Hassan. You knew they were going to kill you.
Hassan Eslaye, Hossam Shabat and Refaat Alareer all expected to be killed, and they were.
Part of what is so striking about this is that everyone in Gaza seems to have a premonition of their death. How could they not as bombs continue to rain down on them as they try to shelter in tents or the rubble?
96% of children in Gaza feel that death is imminent.
The Guardian
Hassan Eslayeh
Tareq S. Hajjaj writes today, Goodbye, Hassan. You knew they were going to kill you. The Israeli army killed my colleague Hassan Eslayeh in his hospital bed. He predicted his death before it happened, because he knew journalists in Gaza are the only people in the world bearing witness to the greatest crime of our times, published by Mondoweiss, May 14, 2025.
But it was like a bullet fired into my chest. Still half asleep, my body shot up as I digested the news. Once I processed the weight of it, I dropped back down, sinking into my bed heavily. It was time to mourn yet another colleague, taken by this cruel genocide.
The Israeli army killed Hassan in his bed in the early hours of Monday morning local time. The plain fact of killing someone in their hospital bed is horrific, but there is a deep, cruel irony in the fact that Israel killed Hassan in this way. Just a few weeks ago, he predicted this exact scenario.
On April 7, Israel bombed a journalists’ tent outside the Nasser Hospital, burning several people alive and killing Palestinian journalist Ahmad Mansour. Hassan was among the survivors, though he was badly injured, with severe burns across his body and the loss of two of his fingers. On that same day, the Israeli army said that Hassan was the target of the attack, claiming he was a Hamas fighter operating “under the guise of a journalist.” It was the same claim that Israel had made, without evidence, of so many journalists it had killed before.
They killed him, just as he had predicted, unarmed, inside a hospital, posing no threat to anyone. He was in the hospital’s burn unit, still recovering from the first assassination attempt.
They killed Hassan, leaving behind his family, his children, and his wife.
They killed him, leaving behind his colleagues who mourn a void that cannot be filled.
They killed him, just as he predicted, in front of the world, and with no one to stop it.
They killed him because journalists in Gaza are the only people in the world bearing witness to the greatest crime of our times.
And though we have lost an irreplaceable voice of truth, as the sadness overwhelms me, I think of some of the last words Hassan spoke to me: “If the Israeli army kills me, the photos I took and the stories I told the world will live on. My name, my cause, and my voice will live on — and the occupation will die.”
Goodbye, Hassan. You knew they were going to kill you. The Israeli army killed my colleague Hassan Eslayeh in his hospital bed. He predicted his death before it happened, because he knew journalists in Gaza are the only people in the world bearing witness to the greatest crime of our times. By Tareq S. Hajjaj, Mondoweiss, May 14, 2025
Hossam Shabat
I wrote about the killing of Hossam Shabat in March of this year. “If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed–most likely targeted–by the Israeli occupation forces. Whan this all began, I was only 21 yers old–a college student with dreams lke anyone else.” You can read more about his story here: https://unflinching.blog/2025/03/25/israel-kills-journalist-hossam-shabat/
Hossam’s last message was: “I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
From his last article: Israel’s aggression continues. Massacre after massacre, leaving only the screams of mothers in its wake and the dreams of children that have turned to ash. There is no justification for this. Everything is being crushed: the lives of innocent people, their dignity, and their hopes for a better future.
Refaat Alareer
On 6 December 2023, Palestinian poet, Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza, along with his brother, sister, and four of his nephews, during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. The Euro-Med Monitor released a statement saying that Alareer was apparently deliberately targeted, “surgically bombed out of the entire building”, and came after weeks of “death threats that Refaat received online and by phone from Israeli accounts.” On 26 April 2024, his eldest daughter and his newborn grandchild were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their Gaza City home.
He obviously had a premonition about his death given the title of his poem, and book of poems, “If I must Die, Let It Bring Hope.” A copy of that book was given to every member of the U.S. Congress.
(See my blog post: If I must Die, Let It Bring Hope.)
If I Must Die, Let It Bring Hope
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made,
flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale.Refaat Alareer
unflinching 