In yet another blow to press freedom and human dignity in Gaza, Palestinian journalist Islam Muqaddad was killed alongside her infant son Adam when an Israeli airstrike targeted their shelter in Khan Yunis. Islam, 29, had long feared being remembered merely as a statistic. Her worst fear came true.

Her home, a makeshift tent in a neighbourhood battered by weeks of relentless bombardment, became her final resting place. Separated from her injured daughter Zaina—under treatment in Egypt—Islam had been seeking a way to reunite with her. But the war robbed her of that hope. Her husband and daughters now grieve across shattered borders.

Before her death, Islam shared haunting words online: “What terrifies me most is being reduced to a number. I am not just another face lost in the rubble. I built a life—I am not just a name on a list.” Her message has since gone viral, resonating across a region weary of silence and injustice.

Islam is one of 220 journalists killed in Gaza since October. Media workers have become deliberate targets, their voices silenced as they strive to document the untold suffering of a besieged people. Yet, even in death, Islam’s story breaks through the blockade on truth.

The strike that took her life also claimed her child Adam—just shy of his second birthday. Only her daughter Sara remains in Gaza, injured and now orphaned. The home they once knew is reduced to ashes. Friends, colleagues, and strangers mourn a woman who lived with courage, speaking out in a world that so often looked away.

Her voice may have been stilled, but her message echoes louder than ever: she was not a number. She was a mother, a journalist, a Palestinian woman carrying truth in a land that bleeds.