Hamza Murtaja
حمزة مرتجى

Killed by Israel on 20 Aug 2024

Archivist Notes

Full name: Hamza Abdulrahman Mustafa Murtaja | حمزة عبد الرحمن مصطفى مرتجى

Hamza Murtaja, 27 years old, from Gaza city, was a freelance photojournalist and a co-owner and camera operator for the privately owned Record Media production company, Motasem added that Record Media works with multiple outlets including Reuters, The British Channel 4, Anadolu Agency, Al Jazeera TV, Al Araby TV, and Al Mashhad TV.. He was killed on Augustus 20, 2024 in Israeli massacre at the Mustafa Hafez School in western Gaza City.

Murataja, 32, was filming a TV report about the displaced people taking shelter in the school in the al Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City, when the airstrike killed him, according to those sources and his brother and colleague at Record Media, Motasem Murtaja, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app from southern Gaza.

Motasem Murtaja told CPJ that “Hamza was wearing a helmet and a press vest” at the time, adding that Record Media is committed to safety requirements for their journalists and “we agreed to minimize the number of journalists on the ground reporting to minimize the human loss if the places we report from were hit.”

Hamza and Motasem’s older brother, Yaser Murtaja, was a photojournalist who died in 2018 after he was shot by Israeli forces while covering a protest.

“Yaser was like a father to us, and Hamza was like a support and partner to me,” Motasem told CPJ. “There is no doubt that this is a difficult and great loss, but our hope is in God, and His compensation is greater.” Motasem added, “Hamza and Yaser are now martyrs, Bilal [their brother] and I are the only ones left. We are all journalists.”

Hamza Murtaja was the father of two children: Omar, 4, and Yaser, 6 months. Yaser was named after his uncle, the murdered journalist, and was born during the Israel-Gaza war, on the same day Yaser was killed. According to Motasem Murtaja, Hamza had not met his son Yaser.

Record Media was established in 2019 by Motasem and Hamza Murtaja after their brother’s shares in Ain Media were sold to Roshdi Sarraj, a photojournalist who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. “We established it with one camera, but we were able to cooperate with major media institutions,” Motasem told CPJ.

The IDF said in an August 28 letter to CPJ that "Murtaja was an operative in the military branch of Hamas and was struck while staying in a Hamas command and control center that was embedded and hidden by the Hamas terrorist organization inside the ‘Mustafa Khaft’ School compound in Gaza City." The letter did not provide details to support this claim.

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Sources:
https://cpj.org/data/people/hamza-murtaja/
https://x.com/iskandrah/status/1826263619358851242
https://x.com/iskandrah/status/1825864555483836924
https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1825929498409226372