Just hours after journalist Yahya Sobeih welcomed his newborn daughter into the world, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. He had named her Sanaa, after his mother—a surprise he never got to share. Instead of celebrating her birth, his family mourned his death, carrying him through the streets of Gaza on their shoulders.

Yahya was not alone in martyrdom. He died alongside his cousin and brother-in-law, Rami Sobeih, and his closest friend, Yousef Al-Afri. Rami was already raising five children alone after losing his wife—Yahya’s sister—earlier in the war. Now, those children are orphans. Yahya’s own three children—Bara, Kinan, and baby Sanaa—are left fatherless.

Throughout the war, Yahya never stopped reporting, believing silence in the face of injustice was complicity. He survived sieges, bombings, and countless dangers, refusing to evacuate from Gaza. Just before the strike, he had called his brother Youssef for help with his camera gear. Youssef was ten minutes away when the missile struck.

Yahya and his friend Yousef had just launched a media company in Watan Tower—a building later reduced to rubble. His work, his family, and his dreams were all wiped out in a flash. But Yahya’s voice, his courage, and his message will not be forgotten. His story now joins the countless cries for justice echoing from Gaza.