During this talk, Palestinian journalist Amal Helles will share insights into how it is like to be a journalist in Gaza and to work under extreme conditions while covering the war in Gaza. She will highlight the crucial role of Palestinian female journalists, their challenges, and their contributions to shaping the narrative , including her own experiences.

Amal Helles was born in 1994 in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip. There she was a journalist for the local outlet White Media. And she reported from Gaza for The Times until the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. At the moment Helles is a Safe Haven Fellow at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) where she researches the role of women journalists in news coverage of Gaza.

Before the war began, many Gazan female journalists – including Amal Helles – were living fairly ordinary lives, working as reporters and taking care of our families. The war changed that. While in Israel, networks and newspapers were sending their foreign correspondents from the US and the UK to report on the ground, western journalists were blocked from entering Gaza. Instead, local journalists – many of them content creators and influencers – stepped in.

Amal: “The work during the war was very difficult. We had to balance being journalists with commitments to our families. I’m a mother, and had to leave my home for long days, leaving my two small children with family in order to work."