Who Is Motaz Azaiza; 'The Palestinian Hero'? (image@ azaizamotaz9)
Motaz Azaiza is a name that has been reverberating ever since the current Israel-Hamas war started spiralling into another genocide. The 24-year-old Palestinian photojournalist is known for his sedulous commitment in bringing out harrowing ground realities of war tyrannized Gaza. Reporting from the land of catastrophe, Azaiza struck hearts of millions with his photographs spitting raw images of the gut-wrenching realities forced upon the people of Palestine.
His social media account is one among very few sources for those outside the battlefield to clearly understand and witness the bloody face of the Israeli occupation force’s current genocidal war on the besieged coastal enclave. Before the ongoing Israel-Hamas war has started, Motaz Azaiza was a freelance photojournalist from Gaza. He then started working for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Before October 7, he only had some 25,000 followers on his Instagram handle. Though once taken down for his unfiltered depiction of the chaos, his account surged over 18 million followers within three months of the war.
He started to capture public’s attention through a drone footage that showed the destruction caused by Israeli air strike, in which an entire neighbourhood was diminished to ashes. He lost 15 members of his family at the earlier days of the war. Azaiza lost several of his friends including the one who has been helping him with drone visuals.
Motaz Azaiza’s posts are often paired with razor sharp words from the perspective of a Palestinian youth who is immensely proud of his Palestinian nationality and of who lost faith in any authority who boasts about wielding international power.
He said even Palestinian “babies are heroes”.
View this post on Instagram
By sharing ariel video of a neighbourhood in Gaza which was completely destroyed by Israeli bombing, Azaiza asked, “Could you just close your eyes for a second and imagine the dreams of these people who lost their homes, their lives and their loved ones ? Imagine everything you tried to build and achieve got lost in a seconds”.
View this post on Instagram
His images showed third degree burns and bloodied bodies with missing limbs, sometimes heads. Buildings reduced to ashes and roads transformed to useless rubbles often appeared in the Palestinian journalist’s social media posts.
Azaiza once shared a video right after an Israeli airstrike hit his neighbourhood. With cracked voice filled with terror he showed the naked actuality of the immediate moments that has been taking place in Gaza for over three months. The video contained civilians dead, blood spilling from body parts of those wounded, people who were half stuck under the heavy rubbles, bodies with missing limps, the video can be considered as a brief sum of what is Gaza now.
Shocked and loss for words, Azaiza said, “ I lost a lot and no one is a winner
We are all losing in this war”.
With Israel’s complete siege on the Strip, nothing was easy for the Palestinian journalist, and Palestinians in whole. With power black out, journalists find it extremely hard to get their posts on social media. Azaiza was often seen grappling for internet signal to show the world his land’s story.
View this post on Instagram
While he was called a ‘hero’ for his work, angry Azaiza responded that he is not a hero but just a “photographer who dreamed to travel the world and share the the stories from the different globe and for his bad luck, the dream could not come true”.
View this post on Instagram
Motaz Azaiza was crowned as the GQ Middle East’s Man of the Year. The GQ Middle East on declaring Motaz Azaiza as their Man of the Year said that it was his name that came to the forefront while listing the candidates. According to them, he became a global figure in the recent weeks, and became an “embodiment of hope for the people of Gaza and for the rest of us around the world”. According to the magazine, what he captured had “captured us and galvanizes the rest of us to be bold in the face of opposition”.
But while he was being recognised for his valuable work, a rather dejected Azaiza was on top of a water container, trying to at least watch the award ceremony.
Instead of being in Istanbul I’m above the water containers trying to get 3G connection so I can watch the award ceremony footage
I’m not even able to express how mad I am and can’t even thank people in a gentle way because I feel desperate and disgusted from my situation here… pic.twitter.com/IFMsFkqenD— MoTaz (@azaizamotaz9) January 20, 2024
Motaz Azaiza is known to the world for his courage and ardent covenant in visually documenting the unsettling atrocities unleashed upon the innocent Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. He documented his own life in his homeland, where he was seen juggling between his journalistic duties as well as taking care of his people by sometimes carrying the wounded to the hospital, by aiding in bringing out the dead, or those stuck under the rubble, and sometimes by helping in carrying the luggage of those fleeing their home in fear of Israeli aggression.
Earlier Today, he shared a post on his social media platforms, which broke hearts of millions. In the disheartening video, Motaz Aziza said he is evacuating for reasons that may known to everyone, though not all reasons. He said, “I had to evacuate for a lot of reasons you all know some of it but not all of it”. With weighing heart, Azaiza said, “ “last time you will see me in this heavy, stinky vest… I decided to evacuate today…sorry, Insha Allah will come back soon, and help to built Gaza again”.
View this post on Instagram
The comment session of the post was flooded with praise and love for the young journalist. One of the user said, “Without him, the world may not know what it knows now. He is documenting and exposing all of Israel’s atrocities. Motaz is a hero and must be protected at all costs”.
Another user said, “His departure – which he must do to survive; to live – is going to have a massive impact on our global witnessing of Israeli/American crimes in Gaza. Israel has created such horrors in Gaza”. AJ+ noted that, Azaiza “has been an incomparable documentarian of the genocide in Gaza”.
While being taken to Qatar in a military plane, Motaz Azaiza shared a little note for his lost friend Mustafa, who used to help him with his drone visuals. His note which was in his mother tongue Arabic read, “where are you Mustafa? You see, we have reached the clouds brother, but this time it not a drone, may God have mercy on you”. Azaiza then asked the million dollar question which might sound intensely difficult to produce a proper answer, “Should I be Happy?”.
