At nine years old, most children’s biggest concern involves their toys, their friends at school, and their favorite television shows. For Lama Abu Jamous, her biggest concern is her survival.
Gaza’s youngest journalist is nine-year-old Lama Abu Jamous from Khan Younis, whose work provides a platform for Palestinian people and children to be heard around the world as they fight for their survival amid the airstrikes, bombings, and attacks they are experiencing at the hands of Israel and its military, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Living in the “most dangerous place in the world to be a child,” Jamous and her family are among the 1.9 million Palestinians who have been displaced since October 7, 2023, to refugee camps in the south of Gaza due to Israel’s ongoing bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
After watching a video Lama created to document her experience with displacement and the ongoing war, her cousin showed it to Jamous’ father, who thought it was worth publishing. Since then, Lama has been interviewing refugees facing a reality much like that of her own. She has even posted a video wearing the helmet and blue bulletproof vest marked “PRESS” worn by journalists reporting live from warzones.
Jamous has interviewed Bisan Owda, Palestinian filmmaker turned journalist, veteran journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh, the head of the department of the burn unit in Nasser Hospital Dr. Ahmed el Moghrabi, Palestinian singer Rahaf Shamaly, and many more. She reports on the communication failures, the lack of clean water, food, and shelters, updates on the latest attacks, and the stories of other children she encounters while living in refugee camps.
Many of her videos show the destruction of buildings in the areas she records, and the sound of drones flying in the air is hard to avoid. While her content is in Arabic, other users offer English translations in the comments to aid non-Arabic speakers in understanding her reports.
Though the circumstances under which Jamous, her family, and other Palestinians are living are devastating, this young journalist remains hopeful that the war will end, families will be reunited, and she will be able to study in school with her friends again.
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