Journalism is a career that requires a lot, a lot of vocation. The emotional consequences are not easy to ignore, especially for some professionals such as those dedicated to war journalism, who experience first-hand the drama in war conflict zones. Sometimes the psychological burden is so enormous that they are unable to do their job properly.
Journalist Adnan El-Bursh is one of the latest to show how hard his work is. The reporter and his team were reporting on the last hour of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, from the Al Shifa hospital last Thursday, October 12. At one point, the journalist could not help but burst into tears, overwhelmed by everything he sees around him.
El-Bursh and his team had gone to the site, saturated due to one of the latest clashes, to report on the consequences of the latest airstrike by the Israeli army. El-Bursh and his camera keep up, something commendable after having discovered that many of his friends, neighbors and family were among the civilians who had perished in the conflict.
The journalist, almost without a voice, describes how bleak the situation around him is. “There are bodies lying everywhere.”
The reporter walks through the hallways, talks to the sick and their families, sees children crying… Until at one point, overwhelmed, he cannot help but fall to the floor and burst into tears when trying to give the latest news on what happened.
“Among the dead and injured, my cameraman, Mahmud, has seen his friend Malik. Malik has managed to survive, but his family has not,” reports El-Bursh, devastated.
“This is my hospital. Inside are my friends, my neighbors. This is my community. “Today has been one of the most difficult days of my career.”
The journalist barely manages to complete the report, amidst the cries and screams of the wounded, among whom are the elderly, women, men and children.
Without strength, he could not stop crying from inside the hospital, confessing to having seen “things that he will never be able to stop seeing,” since the hospital center lacks space and resources due to the increasing number of victims.
“The dead are not given their dignity and the wounded are abandoned in the midst of their pain,” El-Bursh revealed, with visible desperation in the tone of his voice. The correspondent has been reporting on everything that happens in the area for more than 13 years, and this has been the worst moment by far. “We don’t know what to do. You never want to become the protagonist. I feel helpless.”
According to Palestinian government sources, at least 1,537 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip so far, leaving more than 6,612 injured. The United Nations has reported that Israel’s military forces have asked more than a million Palestinians living in the area to evacuate the north, announcing upcoming attacks.
