In a new interview conducted by Emad Ghaboun for our oral archive, The Living Record, journalist Wissam Shabat remembers the life and work of his brother and mentor, Hossam. “He loved the land of Palestine,” says Wissam. “For him, Palestine was everything.”

Hossam became a photographer at a young age, taking pictures of the trees in his hometown, Beit Hanoun, and of the people around him. By 15 or 16, he was photographing students’ graduations and martyrs’ funerals. Wise beyond his years, he became Wissam’s role model, his mentor in photography and journalism: what to post and how to post it, what to keep to himself. “Little by little, [Hossam] taught me, and I became who I am,” says Wissam.

Hossam was among the few journalists who remained in the North to document the occupation’s crimes despite its repeated orders to evacuate; Wissam went to the South. Together, the brothers worked to cover Israel’s war crimes across the whole of the Strip. When the two reunited in the North after the January 25 ceasefire, they reported from the same place while providing aid to their neighbors.

Before they started reporting together from the North, Hossam asked his brother: ​​“Are you ready? The end is death, in service of Palestine. Are you ready?” He spoke with the utmost clarity and assuredness in his duty to deliver the truth from Palestine to the world, even as he faced direct threats from the Zionist occupation.

On March 24, 2025, Hossam was martyred in Beit Lahia, near the Indonesian Hospital, by an Israeli drone strike targeting his jeep. He was 23 years old. His final message to us: “Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories — until Palestine is free.”

Wissam, to this day, has not stopped reporting.

Watch the full video here — or read and listen to Wissam’s testimony, along with dozens of others from journalists remembering their colleagues, at The Living Record.

Keep Hossam’s message alive by printing and wheatpasting martyr posters, available here.