Twitter prays for Palestine as #MoTaz trends. Is Israel targeting this Gaza journalist?

Update, 2:30 p.m. IST: Followers of Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza heaved a sigh of relief as he posted images on Instagram half an hour ago, depicting the aftermath of the Israeli attack on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.

While #MoTaz continues to trend on X (formerly Twitter), it is assurance at least that this one member of the media and this one Gazan citizen is still safe enough to be working to document and disseminate the attack on Gaza. (Context and older version of this article follows.)

#MoTaz started trending on Twitter on the morning of 25 December, soon after Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza tweeted at 5:19 a.m. that an armed quadcopter was above his home in Gaza.

The 24-year-old's reporting from the ground, one of several phenomenal records by local journalists of the Israeli assault on Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attack, has garnered him a following of over 911.5 thousand followers on X (formerly Twitter).

Named GQ Middle East's 2023 Man of the Year in November, MoTaz (as he styles himself on his social media handle) has become an iconic figure to supporters of Palestine and those calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

His specialty has been portraits of people, and he has worked with the UNRWA. But during the war, he has shared—often several times a day, certainly almost daily over the last couple of months—images and video of fellow members of the press as well as of the airstrikes and ground operations.

He still takes the time to stop for portraits—and some of them will likely make it into museum galleries alongside the napalm-lit children of Vietnam.

When GQ announced its 2023 Man of the Year, it tweeted its dedication of the award to 'those whose fearlessness remains unmatched: Plestia Alaqad (@byplestia), Hind Khoudary (@hindkhoudary), Wael Al-Dahdouh (@wael_eldahdouh), the late Issam Abdallah, the late Shireen Abu Akleh. The countless names we know of and the ones that we don't.'

It added of MoTaz himself: 'As he continued to bravely speak truth to power, we pray for his safety and for the safety of those around him.'

Like many in Gaza, this journalist grew up in a refugee camp. What set him apart was the way he started photoblogging life in Gaza after failing to find a job. He now has 17.5 million Instagram followers, on the platform he started to self-publish on.

Before joining the UNRWA in March this year, he had contributed images to Medecins Du Monde Suisse, MintPress News and ABC News.

Even as 15 of his family members were killed in a single Israeli airstrike, and he has driven across friends in the media—who have done their best and then moved out, fleeing across the border to keep their own families safe—Motaz Azaiza has chosen to stay, saying that while he is currently living in a "dark place", he has a message to get out to the world:

Several of his posts show him playing with children, consoling them in hospitals.

The photographer's own portraits have become iconic among those expressing solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack or detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Even the BBC—which has been pilloried at home and abroad for its biased coverage of Gaza, and criticised by its own employees for its choice of words (or lack thereof)—took note of artwork featuring Motaz Azaiza in Manchester recently.

Over the last several days, he tweeted daily calling for a ceasefire, a call that has been amplified by several of his followers.

Meanwhile, the UN secretary general has been one of many international watchdogs to note the reprehensible killing of journalists to silence the free press this year. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 69 members of the media have been killed in Gaza as of 23 December 2023; 62 of them were Palestinian.

It's no mere conspiracy theory in the circumstances that his followers wonder if Israel is deliberately trying to kill Motaz Azaiza's storytelling from Gaza.

After all, quite recently, a Channel 13 journalist spoke of knowing beforehand that specific people were being targeted—and the example he took was of Al Jazeera's Gaza chief of bureau, Wael al Dahdouh, who was reporting live on air when he heard of his family at home having been killed in an Israeli strike. Among the dead were his wife, schoolgoing son, a daughter aged 7 and his grandchild, all of 18 months old. Others were buried under rubble.

Later, footage was seen online of Dahdouh holding apparently his daughter's body and leaning over his son's.

While such events may have got more eyeballs simply for those affected being members of the press and associated with leading media organisations, it must be remembered that this is everyday occurrence for thousands in and from Gaza, who hear of several family members decimated at one go daily.

MoTaz will be one of the lucky Gazans to turn 25 years old at the end of January 2025—if he lives to see the day.