Omar Al Dirawi, a Palestinian photographer and camera operator for the local Assulta Arrabaa (Fourth Estate) news agency, was killed alongside several family members in an Israeli airstrike on his home in the town of Al-Zawaida in central Gaza, at 3 a.m. on January 3, 2025, according to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes, his brother and a colleague, who both spoke with CPJ.
Al Dirawi, 23, worked for Assulta Arrabaa since mid-2023, and posted photos of the war on his Instagram account, which had 237,000 followers.
“My brother Omar was a promising and creative photojournalist, and since the beginning of the current war, he worked around the clock to convey the truth and expose the crimes of the occupation against the people,” Tahseen Al Dirawi told CPJ. "Omar had no political activity or affiliation at all but was a neutral photojournalist."
Tahseen Al Dirawi and another family member, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals, said that Omar and his mother regularly received phone calls from unknown Israeli numbers, warning him to stop filming or face the consequences.
“Omar was a polite young man with a beautiful personality, in addition to having great skills in the art of still and moving photography," Youssef Rayyan, editor-in-chief of Assulta Arrabaa, told CPJ.
The explosion also killed the journalist’s parents, two of his brothers, and a cousin, his brother told CPJ, adding that he and the rest of the family were injured. Another brother of Al Dirawi’s was killed in an Israeli bombing one day before, on January 2.
CPJ’s email to the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk asking whether the military knew there was a journalist in the area it attacked and whether Al Dirawi was targeted for his work did not immediately receive a response.