Saleh Aljafarawi, 28, a freelance Palestinian journalist who gained prominence on social media for his coverage of the war, was shot and killed on October 12, 2025, by members of an armed Palestinian group in Gaza City.
On October 12, violent clashes erupted in Gaza City — primarily in the Al-Sabra and Tel al-Hawa neighborhoods — between Hamas security forces and armed factions, including groups linked to the Doghmush clan and a militia led by Yasser Abu-Shabab, who is reportedly backed by Israel to weaken Hamas’s control. The fighting followed Israel’s partial withdrawal from parts of Gaza, creating a power vacuum that fueled internal rivalries.
According to his father, Amer Aljafarawi, Saleh Aljafarawi was covering the aftermath of Israeli bombardment, when at around 4:00 p.m. gunmen opened fire, hitting him multiple times. “He was in Al-Sabra to document the destruction left after the Israeli withdrawal, and armed men cooperating with the Israeli occupation shot him,” Amer Aljafarawi told CPJ.
Amer Aljafarawi added that his son was clearly identifiable as a journalist at the time of the attack — wearing both a press vest and helmet — and that his killing was deliberate. He denied reports that his son had been abducted prior to his death.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s governmental media office, told CPJ that Aljafarawi “was killed by gunfire from one of the gangs while covering the security forces’ clash with them in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City.”
Aljafarawi left behind a farewell letter to be shared in the event of his death, which was posted on the social platform X after he was killed.
He said that he had given everything he had — his strength, his time, his heart — to be a voice for the people of Gaza. “I tasted loss many times, yet I never hesitated to convey the truth as it is — the truth that will remain a testimony against those who were silent and an honor for those who stood firm,” he said.
Aljafarawi had been injured on February 15, 2024, when an Israeli drone strike hit the area between Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He was helping evacuate doctors fleeing Nasser Hospital when the missile struck, woundinghim with shrapnel in his right hand, he told CPJ at that time.