A Palestinian journalist known for reporting on Israel's decimation of her country has revealed the deep sense of responsibility that drove her to do her job.
Plestia Alaqad's first assignment after studying new media at university was to cover what an independent United Nations panel found was a genocide, surviving 45 days in Gaza before her family left for Australia.
The 22-year-old, whose diaries from her time in Palestine form her debut novel The Eyes of Gaza, addressed a Democracy in Colour event in western Sydney on Monday night.
Ms Alaqad said her journalism was not inspired by passion, but rather the mission of showing the world what Israel's bombardment was truly like.
"No one teaches you how to report on a genocide or how to survive a genocide, that's something where you just need to put yourself out there in the field and trust everything you've learned," she said.
"Palestinian journalists are constantly reporting on the deliberate starvation that Israel is making, but they're also starving while reporting on that.
"They report on families who lost loved ones, but they don't have time to even grieve the loved ones that they lost."
The Committee to Protect Journalists found 197 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israel since the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
Speaking days after a US-led ceasefire deal was announced, Ms Alaqad spoke of the "false hope" associated with pauses in hostilities after previous attempts proved fruitless.
"It's just like a pause, 'Oh let's pause killing Palestinians for a couple of days, then we will continue'," she said.
"Ceasefire is like a window of hope, even if it's just for five seconds or five minutes ... we can sleep tonight, knowing that tomorrow we will all wake up, knowing that cousins who are still in Gaza will wake up without missing a hand or a leg."
The young Palestinian won a number of awards for her journalism, including the One Young World Journalist of the Year, the Lyra McKee Award for Bravery, and a Human Rights Defender award.
Israel launched a two-year military offensive on Gaza that killed more than 67,000 people including about 20,000 children, according to the United Nations.
It came after militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel which reportedly killed 1200 people, with more than 250 taken hostage.
