Motaz Azaiza. Photo: Screenshot

Motaz Azaiza, a leading Gazan photojournalist and activist boasting 17.2 million followers on Instagram, recently posted a story sharing his opinion that a single Palestinian life is “more important than a thousand Israelis.”

Azaiza, a 25-year-old independent photographer raised in the Deir al-Balah refugee camp, has become one of the most globally recognizable spokespeople for Gazans amid the current Israel-Hamas war and perhaps the most prominent of a number of local Gazan journalists claiming to accurately report events on the ground.

“I’m in a fight with everyone who doesn’t care about the lives of Palestinians. For me, the lives of Palestinians are more precious and way more important than the lives of Israelis (the ones who occupy Palestine),” Azaiza posted on Jan. 19.

“Even sometimes I fight with Palestinians who just want to sacrifice their lives for the sake of sacrifice,” he continued. “Our lives mean the most [in Arabic: our lives are the most precious thing we have]. Our souls are precious. A single Palestinian is worth more than a thousand Israelis. Thank you.”

Azaiza’s content, which frequently features graphic images, is high-quality, bilingual in Arabic and English, carefully edited and polished, and designed to produce sympathy from viewers with special focus on the human cost of the war among Gaza’s population.

To supporters of the Palestinian cause, Azaiza represents a “beacon of resistance” in photographing the dead and wounded, along with his livestreams amid unfolding airstrikes that garner thousands of viewers. Azaiza’s photo of a girl under rubble was named one of Time‘s Top 10 Photos of 2023. He was also nominated as GQ Middle East’s Man of the Year 2023, and was among those nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, together with fellow Gazan journalists Bissan Owda, Wael Dahdouh, and Hind Khoudary (a documented collaborator of Hamas).

Azaiza’s image as an intrepid civilian reporter has elevated him to the status of journalistic hero for pro-Palestinian activists. However, critics have questioned his integrity and ultimate motives — particularly after he chose to leave Gaza in January 2024 (with some lack of clarity on how and why he was allowed to leave via the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt), when he was welcomed with open arms by Qatar via a military plane. He currently resides in Qatar.

Azaiza has spent much of 2024 on a speaking tour in the United States, where he has met with US Rep. Rashida Tlaib, an outspoken critic of Israel, and visited the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia University to praise demonstrators.

Azaiza has come under fire for reposting footage shot by Hamas terrorists during their October 2023 attack in southern Israel, which he praised before deleting the post. On Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas invasion, he posted to social media using the hashtag #PalestineGenocide attached to a video of Hamas fighters holding Israelis hostages. The post came during the Hamas assault, before the onset of Israel’s response the following day.

The Gaza journalist also publicly mourned the deaths of Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, the latter of whom masterminded the Oct. 7 massacre.