Saed Abu Nabhan

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Saed Abu Nabhan, a 25-year-old freelance camera operator and photographer who worked with the privately owned Al-Ghad TV and Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency, was shot dead by an Israeli sniper while reporting on January 10, 2025, in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to multiple news reports.

Khamis Al-Rifi, a witness who freelances for the broadcaster Al Jazeera and Reuters news agency, told CPJ, that Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp started receiving emergency calls to help injured people after an Israeli attack.

“Given our presence at the press coverage point next to the hospital, we headed there with the ambulances at five in the evening. While the wounded were being pulled out of the area, an Israeli soldier fired a single bullet from a place we could not see. The bullet penetrated Saed’s chest and exited his back,” Al-Rifi said.

“One of the young men tried to pull him out, but he couldn’t because he was within range of the soldiers, who were apparently about 50 meters away from us. Unfortunately, he was martyred on the spot. After about 20 minutes, the young men managed to pull him out under Israeli tank fire,” Al-Rifi said.

A video shot by Al-Rifi showed Abu Nabhan running from gunfire with other people then falling to the ground saying, “Oh God, I was hit.” Other news videos showed journalists wheeling his body into the hospital on a stretcher.

Saed’s father, Sabri Abu Nabhan, told CPJ that the family used to live in Nuseirat camp but were displaced when their house was bombed in May 2024.

“He went to Al-Awda Hospital and there he received a call about the presence of wounded people west of Nuseirat. And he went with one of the hospital’s ambulances to the place and he was martyred during the coverage,” Sabri Abu Nabhan said.

Abu Nabhan said that his son studied photography and video editing at Gaza’s University College of Applied Sciences because he was passionate about journalism.

Al-Ghad TV correspondent Mahmoud Al-Louh told CPJ that he worked with Abu Nabhan from September 2024 until his death. “Saed used to film my live broadcasts, stories, and television reports on a daily basis,” he said.

“About half an hour before he went for the field coverage, he filmed me in a live broadcast and then he went with the ambulance to the scene,” Al-Louh said, adding, “Saed was a professional, generous person who loved photography, which is why he succeeded and excelled in it. He had high morals and had big dreams, but the Israeli bullet put an end to those dreams.”

Abu Nabhan was buried on January 11, 2025.

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 Abu Nabhan was targeted for his work did not immediately receive a response.