Fatima Hassona, a photojournalist, who appears in a documentary selected to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival next month, has been killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike.

This wonderful creative 25 year old woman was killed along with 6 of her siblings. Her parents were seriously wounded.

 French-Iranian director Sepideh Farsi’s documentary is  Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, in which Fatima Hassona is featured heavily.

“Her smile was as magical as her tenacity: bearing witness, photographing Gaza, distributing food despite the bombs, mourning and hunger. We heard her story, rejoiced at each of her appearances to see her alive, we feared for her,” said the production team in a statement released to the press.  Variety

Israel has continued its genocide in Gaza with missile attacks through the night setting fire to tents whilst people slept in them unable to escape, and preventing humanitarian aid from entering the area.

Today, Saturday 19 April, campaigners in Orkney will again meet on the Kirk Green, Broad Street, between 1 and 2pm. The islanders have been meeting in a vigil every Saturday since October 2023, except for a pause when there was a brief ceasefire. They are calling for an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, and the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid. They welcome anyone who shares in their hopes for peace to join them.

The Israeli siege of Gaza means that humanitarian aid and supplies have not been able to enter the area for almost seven weeks now (since 2 March 2025).

Nearly 3,700 children in March alone were newly admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, compared to slightly over 2,000 in February. Due to constant challenges and the lack of essential aid, in March, the number of children who received blanket supplementary feeding decreased by more than 70 per cent compared to February. The use of starvation by Israel is a war crime.

International journalists are not being allowed into Gaza by Israel to report on the atrocities taking place. Journalists have become a target with over 200 Palestinian journalists killed since October 2023.

” We have recorded a massive spike in such operations – attacks, killings, detention and censorship – since 7 October 2023,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN human rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

“The intentional killings of journalists is a war crime, and this is something that we have highlighted on several occasions.”

For Christians, Easter is the most important time of the year. Palestinian Christians are estimated to number 50,000 living mostly in the illegally occupied West Bank. For hundreds of years Palestinian Christians attended Holy festivals in the old city of Jerusalem. To do so they must have a permit and extremely few have been issued. There are also severe limitations on their use and many Christians are simply too afraid to go because of the threat of intimidation and violence.

The Orkney News has continued to report on the Gaza Genocide, the violence in The West Bank, and the vigils taking place in Orkney – which are unprecedented in the history of activism in the islands.

Fiona Grahame