Hazem Balousha

Gaza/Amman

Hazem Balousha, a distinguished journalist based in Gaza, brings over two decades of experience covering security, politics and culture in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Throughout a career spanning more than two decades, Balousha has been a firsthand witness to the rise of Hamas to power, the Israeli blockade, multiple conflicts and the resulting upheavals for Gazan civilians.
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Latest from Hazem Balousha

Blast wounds, burns and disease: Rafah’s spiraling health-care crisis

Israel’s military operations in Rafah have overwhelmed hospitals, which were already struggling to treat patients suffering from malnutrition and disease.

May 9, 2024

Israel to press attack on Rafah as it negotiates possible cease-fire deal

Hamas’s agreement to a cease-fire proposal revived hopes of an extended pause to the fighting in Gaza, even as Israel ordered a large-scale evacuation of Rafah.

May 6, 2024
Displaced Palestinians who fled Rafah after the Israeli military began evacuating civilians from the eastern parts of the southern Gaza city, ahead of a threatened assault, in Mawasi, near the edge of Khan Younis on Monday.

Israel high court hears first case challenging secret detentions in Gaza war

Thousands of people have gone missing in Gaza, including some detained by Israeli forces. But Israel says it’s under no obligation to disclose where they are.

May 1, 2024
Israeli soldiers handle a blindfolded Palestinian detainee from Gaza after arriving to the Israeli side of the border on Wednesday. The detainee's hands were tied behind his back with a plastic zip tie. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)

In war-battered Gaza, residents grow angry with Hamas

As Hamas sticks to a hard line in cease-fire negotiations with Israel, many Palestinians just want the fighting and misery to end after more than six devastating months.

April 27, 2024
An aerial view of destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Monday.

Why Israel may reopen a key crossing with Gaza

Reopening the Erez crossing could help the flow of aid into hunger-stricken northern Gaza. Before the war, it was primarily used for foot traffic.

April 6, 2024
Israeli tanks at the Erez crossing on the Israel-Gaza border on Jan. 20.

In Israel’s war against Hamas rule, Gazans go hungry, aid groups retreat

In its war against Hamas, Israel has also destroyed the group’s civilian rule. With no alternative in place, aid groups are struggling to help starving Gazans.

April 3, 2024
Smoke rises during an Israeli strike in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday.

Israel is determined to invade Rafah. The U.S. is still waiting for its plan.

Israel has warned Washington that its war against Hamas cannot be won without taking Rafah, home to more than 1 million displaced Gazans. The U.S. is deeply concerned.

April 2, 2024
Smoke billows over buildings after an Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 27. (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

Hamas ‘dismantled’ but not destroyed, IDF says, as Gaza war enters new phase

The IDF says it has “dismantled” 20 of the original 24 Hamas battalions in Gaza, but its remaining fighters are still capable of waging a lethal insurgency.

March 27, 2024
Israeli soldiers along the southern border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Netanyahu says ‘no way’ to eliminate Hamas without Rafah operation

The Israeli prime minister remained defiant, even as U.S. officials summoned an Israeli delegation to Washington to discuss an attack on Rafah.

March 19, 2024
People inspect a building hit by Israeli bombardment overnight in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday.

Drone footage raises questions about Israeli justification for deadly strike on Gaza journalists

Footage recovered from the drone of an Al Jazeera team killed by the IDF in a targeted Jan. 7 missile strike raises critical questions about the Israeli justification for the attack.

March 19, 2024