Fatima Hassouna
Fatima Hassouna (1999–16 April 2025) was a Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza City. She began documenting life in Gaza after the October 7 attacks and became one of the few local journalists allowed to report there once foreign reporters were banned. She studied multimedia at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza.
Her work focused on civilian life during the Gaza war: evacuations under military orders, destruction from airstrikes, casualties, funeral rituals, and moments of resilience like children playing in ruins.
Hassouna’s reporting gained international attention and she became the subject of the documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, directed by Sepideh Farsi. The film was selected for Cannes’ ACID parallel program in 2025 and features Hassouna in video conversations with Farsi. In their final exchange, Hassouna told Farsi, “I’ll come to Cannes, but I have to return to Gaza. I don’t want to leave.”
On 16 April 2025, Hassouna and ten relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed when an Israeli missile struck their home in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City. The attack came one day after the documentary’s Cannes selection was announced. Hassouna had previously posted, “If I die, I want a loud death,” and her final Instagram story showed a Gaza sunset with the caption, “It’s the first sunset in a long time.”
She is remembered as a brave journalist who documented the war from a civilian perspective. Forensic Architecture suggested the strike targeted the Hassouna family’s apartment, while Israel said it targeted a Hamas member; director Farsi rejected this justification. After her death, ArabLit published a translation of her poetry collection A Resonant Death.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:00 (CET).