“Maha” once aspired to be a journalist in her native Gaza, but no longer tries. First her Facebook page was taken down. Then Hamas told her, “If you don’t stop, something bad might happen to your family.”

Hamas maintains strict control over media based in Gaza. Freedom House gives the coast strip a score of 0/4 for “free and independent media,” noting “a pattern of arrests, interrogations, and in some cases beatings and torture of journalists in Gaza.”

Hamas often silences journalists by targeting their families. In October 2022, one Gazan media activist posted a video of such a threat after a Hamas enforcer threatened his parents. A few weeks later, according to the International Federation of Journalists, another reporter was arrested by Hamas after he exposed their involvement in an operation smuggling Gazans into Europe. Interrogated by the Hamas security apparatus, he was told he had “stepped into forbidden territory.” The IFJ report adds that security officers subsequently broke into his home and threatened his family.