She had experienced war, death, bloodshed and the tears of bereaved persons since her childhood. Brought up in such a terrifying environment, the 25-year-old Fatima Hassouna became a photojournalist and started sharing images of horrific events in Gaza with the global community. Fatima has recently been killed in an Israeli airstrike, along with 10 family members (including her pregnant sister), days before her wedding. The ongoing Israeli atrocities cut Fatima’s life short as she has become one of countless Palestinian victims of the Israel-Hamas War.

Death was Fatima’s only companion. The young lady was well aware of the fact that she would have to leave this world at any time. However, she used to run from one end of Gaza to the other in order to capture the harsh reality through her lens. In spite of facing all sorts of challenges, Fatima portrayed the Israeli oppression in the Gaza Strip through visual content.

A few days before her demise, Fatima wrote on social media: “If I die, I want a loud death. I don’t want to be just BREAKING NEWS, or a number in a group. I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place.” Her wish tragically came true on April 16, 2025 when an Israeli airstrike hit her residence in northern Gaza, killing Fatima and 10 other members of her family.

Interestingly, it was announced just a day before Fatima’s death that a documentary about the Israeli invasion of Gaza, as well as the biography of the young Palestinian photojournalist, would be screened at the French Film Festival and also at the Cannes Acid Film Festival. Immediately after receiving the news of her demise, organisers of the Cannes Acid Film Festival shared a heartfelt tribute to Fatima, stating: “Her smile was as magical as her tenacity. Bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We feared for her.“

Meanwhile, a local court in St Petersburg has sentenced Darya Kozyreva, the 19-year-old Russian anti-war activist, to nearly three years in prison after she was accused of repeatedly discrediting the Russian Army, including by gluing a quotation on a statue of Ukrainian poet Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (March 9, 1814 – March 10, 1861).

OVD-Info, an independent Russian Human Rights organisation, has confirmed the news, stating that the Russian Police detained Darya on February 24, 2024 for writing a line from a verse penned by the Ukrainian poet on his statue in St Petersburg. The verse from Shevchenko’s My Testament read: “Oh bury me, then rise ye up / And break your heavy chains / And water with the tyrants’ blood / The freedom you have gained.” Talking to Radio Free Europe in 2024, Darya also called the Russian war in Ukraine “monstrous” and “criminal”. Thereafter, a second case was filed against her.

During the hearing on April 18, 2025, Darya claimed that she had only written one line of the verse. However, the court found that the girl was detained while attending school in December 2022 for raising slogans against the Russian Army. She was even expelled from the university. After considering all these, the court announced the verdict.

Following Darya’s sentencing, various Human Rights organisations have condemned the ruling, stressing that the charges against the activist, identifying her as a political prisoner, are absurd. Natalia Zviagina, the Director (Russia) of Amnesty International, has described the verdict as “another chilling reminder of how far the Russian authorities will go to silence peaceful opposition to their war in Ukraine”. She added: “Kozyreva is being punished for quoting a classic of 19th Century Ukrainian poetry, for speaking out against an unjust war and for refusing to stay silent. We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Kozyreva and everyone imprisoned under War Censorship Laws.”

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das