By: Aysel Akram 

Recently, there have been many questions about the Palestinian photographer Motaz Azaiza, as he has recently topped the trend on social media. Who is Motaz Azaiza?

Motaz Azaiza is a Palestinian photojournalist, born in Gaza in the 1990s. He is a photographer who studied journalism at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. His fame and his harsh career began recently, specifically after the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation, and he gained millions of followers and became a social media celebrity. There are around 13 million followers on his Instagram account. Since the first day of the Israeli bombing of Palestine, our hero journalist Motaz has been prominent, as he has documented a large number of painful events and incidents, and always in a continuous try to shed light on the suffering of the residents of Gaza with what has been happening to them since the seventh of last October, and to be a voice for many residents of the Strip. Because of his courage, his faith and his attempt to convey the tragic truths to the world at the cost of his life and his confrontation with death every day with valor and bravery, he won the hearts of people and won their love. For this reason, he was nicknamed “The Super Hero of Gaza”.  Motaz became a part of his followers’ lives, as his disappearance from his Instagram account coinciding with the internet shutdown caused great concern among all his followers who were waiting for any news from him to reassure themselves that he was still alive. He proved to be the pulse of Gaza, the mirror which reflect the truth, or in other word shows the word the real pain..

Despite the tearful moments that Motaz went through, he remained steadfast in documenting everything that happened in Gaza and moving between the neighborhoods of the Strip. One of the painful and shocking moments that Azaiza went through was when he went out to cover an Israeli bombing in the Deir al-Balah neighborhood in Gaza, only to be surprised by the loss of 15 members of his family and their transformation into pieces after the neighborhood in which he lived was targeted, commenting with tears in pain “My family, oh God,” and before when he arrived, he was in a state of anxiety and praying that his family would be fine, but he was shocked upon arrival. However, he continued to cover the events despite his collapse and standing between the bombing and destruction.

He posted many videos and pictures on his Instagram account, commenting, “A new massacre, but this time.” "For my family," Among the pictures he published after the bombing of his house was a picture of himself next to a red doll, as he found this doll under the rubble, which brought joy to his face in light of the genocide operations carried out by Israel in Palestine. He commented under the picture, “We are still alive until now.” He also likened himself to this doll, he survived as she survived. He showed to the world how they’re surviving in this miserable world, same exactly like the doll. The death of his family was not the only shock. Rather, there was another shock and another separation, which was the shock of the death of his colleagues and friends, “Salah and Khaled Jadallah” They were twins, and the friendship between them had been since university, and the worst thing was that he witnessed the recovery of one of them.

His dream, his hope and was he was always planning for is to explore and visit many places in his country, Palestine, but he could not enter them, but he traveled only once in his life, and that was “Egypt,” and according to him, it was amazing. Over & above, Motaz summarized his life in a phrase that he put on his Instagram account: “My pictures have traveled all over the world, but my feet have not touched my homeland.”