Palestinian journalist disappears after brother is murdered
Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan, based in Gaza City, has not been heard from since March 19th, when she posted on X to report the killing of her brother, according to the New Arab.
“Israeli forces just murdered my only brother in front of my eyes,” she wrote in the post. These were her last words before the now two-week period of silence.
Her unusually prolonged social media absence has invoked concern and questions as to her whereabouts. Fellow journalist and writer Mariam Barghouti took to X on March 23rd, demanding, “WHERE IS BAYAN!” “I haven’t been able to reach Bayan for days,” she added.
Her question was echoed by dozens of other users on Instagram, Twitter and Reddit, who had been following Abusultan’s extensive coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza for months. She had been working there as a correspondent and expressed no intention of leaving.
“Once again, Israeli forces are [threatening] us to leave our houses in western Gaza City as it’s part of their “Combat zone,”” she wrote in an X post on March 18th, “Well, it’s part of: where I live. And I have no problem staying here until it becomes where I die too.”
READ: “Mentally devastated” Gazan woman opens up about imprisonment
Following Abusultan’s disappearance, concerned users came together on X to launch a campaign via the hashtag #SaveBayan. Her last post indicated that she was still based in Gaza City when her brother was killed.
One user, who goes by the handle @Lolaa178, claimed that Abusultan and her family “are still alive but they are literally starving and if they go outside they will get shot,” as was written in an X post from March 23rd. The user has continued to provide updates on Abusultan’s whereabouts, citing sources or providing evidence to back her reports.
@Lolaa178 reposted another post from user @TaniaSchell from March 24th that wrote, “There are reports that @BayanPalestine is alive and among the people who are stuck and starving in the Al Shifa region.”
Since her disappearance, journalists from the Jusoor Post found she had been displaced to Al-Shifa Hospital with her family and was trapped there for days.
READ: Israel Supreme Court halts Palestinian patients’ return to Gaza
Al-Shifa Hospital has been subject to consistent raids by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) following reports that a Hamas military base exists underneath the hospital. Yet the hospital has become a refuge for Palestinians displaced from elsewhere in Gaza City, now facing constant danger.
On March 18th, Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Alghoul was arrested and beaten during one of the IDF’s raids on Al-Shifa. He was held for twelve hours, alongside other journalists, before being released the following day.
“Ismail’s targeting indicates that the few remaining journalists in [the] northern Gaza strip are not safe,” Abusultan wrote in an X post at the time.
On February 15th, President of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Jodie Ginsberg said that Israel’s war on Gaza is “unprecedented in terms of the threat to journalists.” She added that Palestinians account for nearly 75 percent of journalists killed worldwide.
“If you google me and find out I was killed,” she wrote in an X post from November 6th, “please take care of my books.”
The New Arab
