Yaser Murtaja

Yaser (or Yasser) Murtaja (Arabic: ياسر مرتجى, 1987/1988 – 6 April 2018) was a Palestinian video journalist and photographer from the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian health ministry, he was killed by Israeli security forces during the 2018 Gaza border protests. Murtaja was the co-founder of Ain Media Production Company, which produced video for several international media outlets. He was one of the first individuals to bring a drone camera into Gaza, a territory with no airport. Murtaja's journalism focused on covering life in Gaza, covering the Blockade of the Gaza Strip and the Gaza–Israel conflict. He was known for his work on Al Jazeera's Gaza: Surviving Shujayea. The documentary covers Bisan Daher after she survived an Israeli attack on Gaza's Shujayea neighborhood that killed six members of her family. Murtaja struck up a close friendship with Bisan to help her cope with the trauma. In 2015, Murtaja documented a house demolition near the border of Gaza. After filming, he was detained by Hamas and, according to the International Federation of Journailsts, was beaten after he refused to release his footage to those holding him. Ain Media, the company Murtaja co-founded has produced work for Al Jazeera, BBC, and Vice, among several other media companies. The company received a grant from USAID that the U.S. State Department said had been strictly vetted. Murtaja worked as an assistant cameraman on the documentary film "Human Flow". He was also a videographer for Ai Weiwei's Journey of Laziz, a video installation shown in a temporary exhibit at The Israel Museum. He worked with filmmaker Alsharif on "Ouroboros", a film about life in Gaza, which premiered at the Locarno Festival in 2017. Murtaja worked in the world of film with minimal institutional support and without a formal cinematic education. In March 2018, under a photo of Gaza's port, Murtaja wrote: "I hope the day that I can take this image when I am in the sky instead of on the ground will come! My name is Yaser, I am 30 years old, live in Gaza City and I have never travelled before in my life!" He once briefly crossed into Egypt, but was turned around hours later because of security reasons in the Sinai. His colleague and friend Hana Awad said that Murtaja had been granted an Al Jazeera scholarship for training in Doha. Murtaja was covering the "Great March of Return" that resulted in the 2018 Gaza border protests.