Days before she was killed in an Israeli strike, photojournalist Mariam Abu Dagga bylined an Associated Press story about Gaza’s deepening humanitarian crisis. Through the lens of her camera, Mariam captured devastating scenes at Nasser hospital, in southern Gaza, where malnourished children succumbed to starvation as famine spread throughout the Strip.
Her photographs, often graphic, told a story of extreme desperation. A family shows Mariam a picture of their daughter’s skeletal body. A severely malnourished toddler, just weeks away from her second birthday, clutches her mother as she speaks to journalists.
Just outside Nasser hospital’s main gates, Mariam documented the constant stream of patients, some wounded, some already dead, entering the hospital. She photographed funerals of children killed in Israeli airstrikes, the chaos surrounding Gaza’s few aid distribution hubs.
Only an hour before her death, as Israeli bombardments in her area picked up, Mariam sent editors at Independent Arabia footage showing Palestinian civilians evacuating their homes.
آخر ما وثقته مصورة اندبندنت عربية مريم أبو دقة قبل مقتلها في قصف إسرائيلي: موجة نزوح جديدة من مدينة غزة باتجاه وسط القطاع وجنوبه#نكمن_في_التفاصيل pic.twitter.com/3HA3jsa29c
— Independent عربية (@IndyArabia) August 25, 2025
On August 25, 2025, Mariam and four other Palestinian journalists were killed in an Israeli “double-tap” strike targeting Nasser hospital, where she and other journalists working for international outlets such as Reuters and Al Jazeera were based. Israel routinely carries out so-called “double-tap” strikes, the practice of following an initial strike with a second, delayed strike which often hits emergency responders and journalists as they rush to the scene.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the August 25 strike was a “tragic mishap” and said military authorities are conducting an investigation. Yet her death follows an alarming pattern of direct targeting of Palestinian journalists by Israel. As civilians, the deliberate killing of journalists is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law. At the time of her death, Mariam was one of the dwindling number of local reporters, and even fewer female reporters, still working on the ground, as the danger increases daily for journalists covering the war.
Mariam risked her own life, over and over, to show international audiences the atrocities of conflict in Gaza. In recognition of her selfless and unwavering commitment to journalism, for which she paid the ultimate price, IPI is honored to name Mariam Abu Dagga as one of the distinguished recipients of the 2025 World Press Freedom Hero award, in partnership with International Media Support (IMS).
The World Press Freedom Hero award is given annually to journalists who have made significant contributions to promoting press freedom in the face of great personal cost. Last year IPI and IMS awarded this recognition to Palestinian journalists covering Gaza.
In recognizing Mariam as one of this year’s Press Freedom Heroes, the selection committee honours the incredible bravery of photojournalists, and female reporters in particular, who are risking their lives to show the world what is happening in Gaza. With this award, IPI also calls attention to the continued killing of journalists in Gaza and the ongoing impunity.
“AP’s team of journalists in Gaza continue to provide the world with crucial eyewitness reporting despite incredibly difficult and dire circumstances. This is exactly what Mariam Dagga, a visual journalist who worked for The Associated Press as well as other news outlets in the region, was doing when she was killed in a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, earlier this year,” said AP Executive Editor Julie Pace.
“Mariam produced searing photos and video that captured the lives of Palestinians facing extraordinary challenges, including families displaced from homes and doctors treating wounded and malnourished children,” Pace continued. “We remain devastated by her death and continue to seek answers to ensure journalists are protected as they cover this war.”
“Her mission will live on”
As a journalist both working and living through political upheaval and conflict, Mariam’s professional work has always been intertwined with her personal life. Mariam’s journalistic career took off in 2018, when she filmed the shooting of a Palestinian protester during a series of mass demonstrations in Gaza known as the Great March of Return. She later discovered the murdered protester was her brother.
As conflict erupted on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel, Mariam threw herself into journalism, becoming one of the few women journalists covering the war. Freelancing for The Associated Press and Independent Arabia, Mariam’s work offered audiences outside Gaza a rare glimpse of the human toll of life under conflict.
Throughout the war, Mariam experienced numerous personal tragedies, including the death of a close colleague and her own mother. She suffered constant displacement and separation from her 13-year-old son, who was evacuated to the United Arab Emirates as the war began. Despite the personal costs, Mariam showed immense strength and dedication to her work, serving as an inspiration to many of Gaza’s journalists.
“Our late colleague was known for her courage, sincerity and dedication to her journalistic mission,” said Adhwan Alahmari, editor-in-chief of Independent Arabia. “She showed the world the raw reality of civilian suffering and humanitarian conditions in one of the most challenging and dangerous environments.”
“[Mariam] was an example of a free journalist who made truth her mission,” Alahmari continued. “Her mission will live on in our work. We will continue to report the truth and defend press freedom, no matter the challenges.”
“I want you not to ever forget me”
In the days before her death, Mariam wrote a letter to her 13-year-old son she hoped he’d never have to read:
“I want you not to ever forget me. I did everything I could to keep you happy, safe and well,” she wrote. “And when you grow up, and get married, and have a baby girl, name her Mariam, after me.”
More than two hundred journalists have been killed over the course of the two-year long war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists in history. Independent investigations have found that in many cases, journalists were deliberately targeted by the Israeli military. Mariam has not been the only Palestinian journalist to pen a final message to family, friends, and their audiences in the case of their untimely deaths.
On August 10, Israel killed five journalists in a targeted strike aimed at Al Jazeera’s Anas Al-Sharif, a prominent correspondent whose reporting on the conflict drew international attention. Following the attack, Israel claimed responsibility, asserting baseless claims that he was working for Hamas. In a final, prewritten statement posted to X after his death, Al-Sharif wrote: “I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”
As Israel has largely barred international journalists from reporting independently inside the Strip since the start of the conflict, international outlets have relied on local freelance journalists and media workers for on-the-ground reporting. With more and more local journalists facing direct targeting, displacement, and starvation, fewer remain to bear witness and document this horrific conflict.
Many times throughout the two-year war, Mariam was reminded of the danger of her chosen profession. Mariam was often one of the first to capture the immediate aftermath of many of the conflict’s darker moments. As the situation in Khan Younis became increasingly unstable in the days before her death, Mariam knew she needed to move to safer ground. To where, she didn’t know. As she told her editor at Independent Arabia in a voice note: “I don’t have a place to go.”
Mariam’s commitment to journalism was evident even in her final moments. Photos found on her camera moments before her death depict one of Nasser hospital’s external staircases, damaged by a first Israeli strike, which killed a Reuters cameraman. As she moved closer to the blast site with her camera, Mariam was killed as a second Israeli strike hit the hospital.
She was 33 years old.
The World Press Freedom Hero awards
IPI will present the World Press Freedom Hero awards at a special ceremony on October 24 at the University of Vienna as part of the 2025 IPI World Congress, which annually brings together leading editors and journalists from around the world.
As IPI marks its 75th anniversary this year, we have chosen to recognize seven individuals who have displayed tremendous courage and resilience in fighting for media freedom. In addition to Mariam, the World Press Freedom Hero award will also be given to Mzia Amaglobeli (Georgia), Martin Baron (United States), Gustavo Gorriti (Peru), Jimmy Lai (Hong Kong), Victoria Roschyna (Ukraine), and Tesfalem Waldyes (Ethiopia).
“This year’s awardees are exemplary of the current threats facing journalists worldwide as authoritarianism gains ground, impunity prevails, and new challenges to freedom of expression emerge,” IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen said. “With this award, we honour their courage, commitment, and legacy – while renewing our urgent call to protect and defend media freedom as a pillar of free society.”
“Each of the recipients of this year’s World Press Freedom Hero award have faced acute dangers and threats merely for doing their job,” IMS Executive Director Jesper Højberg said. “Two of them – Victoria Roshchyna and Mariam Abu Dagga – paid with their lives. With immense courage and persistence, the awardees have uncovered corruption, war crimes, persecution of vulnerable groups and multiple other transgressions. We all owe them our deep gratitude for their fearless commitment to exposing what those in power seek to hide.”
Since 2000, IPI has recognized more than 75 journalists who have displayed tremendous courage and resilience in fighting for media freedom and the free flow of news with the World Press Freedom Hero award. Notable past awardees include imprisoned Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora, slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and Mexican investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui. Since 2015, IPI has been proud to present the award in partnership with IMS.