SALEH JAFARAWI'S LAST MESSAGE

Saleh Aljafarawi was a 28-year-old Palestinian storyteller, singer, and citizen journalist from Gaza City, remembered as one of the most recognizable faces of his generation. In a strip sealed off by siege and surveillance, he became famous for doing the simplest yet most dangerous thing—showing the world what life looked like under Israeli bombardment. With only a phone, his voice and his streets, Saleh turned chaos into testimony. His videos, often filmed amid rubble or displacement camps, carried the defiant rhythm of a people who refused erasure. He documented Gaza’s nights without electricity, mothers searching for bread, children still playing in ruins. To millions of viewers, he wasn’t a war correspondent; he was Gaza itself speaking.

Born in 1997, he grew up under blockade and began producing content years before the 2023 genocide, mixing humor, music, and resistance into his art. When the Israeli bombing intensified, he evolved from entertainer to chronicler, filming every airstrike’s aftermath and giving names to the dead. His accounts reached global audiences before being repeatedly suspended, a reflection of how Palestinian narratives are policed even online. Saleh’s fame in Gaza came from his fearlessness; he said what others whispered and filmed what others feared to face. To many in the West he was controversial for supporting the armed resistance, but to most Gazans he was a mirror of their rage, resilience, and longing for dignity.

On October 12 2025, during the fragile ceasefire, Saleh was shot and killed in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood. Reports indicate he was covering clashes between Hamas fighters and armed collaborator militias working hand in hand with the Genocidal zionist army. Witnesses say he was wearing a press vest, holding his camera until the end. He survived two years of genocide yet died within the first two days of so-called "peace". His death symbolized not just a tragic loss, but the cost of speaking truth from a colonized land.

Saleh Aljafarawi lived and died telling Gaza’s story. In every clip he left behind, his laughter and grief blend into one enduring message: the oppressed will not stop recording their own history. The people, will not stop resisting, rebuilding or be erased.