Ismail al-Ghoul was one of Gaza’s youngest and bravest journalists. On Wednesday, al-Ghoul, along with photographer Rami al-Rifi, was reporting from the al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, an area designated as a “safe zone” by Israel. Moments after, an Israeli drone bombed the vehicle carrying al-Ghoul and his cameraman, killing the two journalists instantly. The bombed vehicle was marked “press.” Both al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were wearing press vests when targeted. Al-Ghoul was only twenty-seven.

The bodies of al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were found in pieces and decapitated, according to Al Jazeera. Footage shows al-Ghoul’s colleagues weeping over his body, screaming: “There’s no head, there’s no head.” Al-Ghoul met the horrific fate of many of the victims in Gaza whose tragic death had been so devotedly documented over the past ten months. One of al-Ghoul’s latest posts features a bereaved Gazan father holding the headless body of his child.

A steadfast reporter, al-Ghoul was our window to Gaza. He labored tirelessly to chronicle the horrors of genocide in the besieged enclave, having covered dozens of massacres, mass graves, and school and hospital bombings, especially at al-Shifa Hospital and in the northern neighborhoods of Gaza. In March, Israeli soldiers in Gaza kidnapped al-Ghoul from al-Shifa Hospital and severely beat him, yet he continued to report on Israel’s war crimes with renewed persistence. His firsthand reports and coverage were shared by Al Jazeera and several international outlets, including this magazine.

“Without Ismail, the world would not have seen the devastating images of these massacres,” wrote one of al-Ghoul’s colleagues at Al Jazeera.

Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif, al-Ghoul’s colleague at Al Jazeera, was among the first to arrive at the crime scene. Battling tears and holding al-Ghoul’s press vest, he said:

This is the press vest of which international organizations are singing the praises. This vest did protect Ismail or the other journalists [killed by Israel]. Look what has become of the vest? Stained in Ismail’s blood and body remains. What sin did Ismail commit? Documented the truth and the suffering of the people?

A dedicated journalist, Al-Ghoul had not seen his displaced wife and young daughter, Zeina, since October. He dreamed of reuniting with family when the war ended. Al-Ghoul himself was displaced over twenty times. Anticipating his own death, he had written his own eulogy, and that of humanity itself:

Let me tell you, my friend, that I no longer know the taste of sleep. The bodies of children and the screams of the injured and their blood-soaked images never leave my sight. The cries of mothers and the wailing of men who are missing their loved ones never fade from my hearing. I can no longer bear the sound of children’s voices from beneath the rubble, nor can I forget the energy and power that reverberates at every moment, turning into a nightmare. It is no longer easy for me to stand before the rows of coffins, which are locked and extended, or to see the dead people more than the living who are fighting death beneath their homes, not finding a way out to safety and survival. I am tired, my friend.

Israel has killed at least 111 journalists in Gaza since October, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which described the assassination as “part of a broader [Israeli] strategy that aims to stifle the information coming out of Gaza.” (The Gaza media office has put the figure at 165 journalists). According to the Intercept, Israel has killed one in ten journalists in Gaza. These include four Al Jazeera journalists and several of their family members. (In April, the Israeli Knesset passed a law allowing Israel to shut down Al Jazeera.) In a statement, Al Jazeera called the killings a “targeted assassination” by Israeli forces and pledged to “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.”

Israel continues to act with impunity in Gaza, sparing no civilians, children, medics, or journalists. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary lamented: “We do everything [to stay safe]. We wear our press jackets. We wear our helmets. We try not to go anywhere that is not safe. We try to go to places where we can maintain our security. But we have been targeted in normal places where normal citizens are.”

Israel’a leaders seem to feel emboldened after the sixty-one standing ovations that Congress gave Benjamin Netanyahu last week. US politicians have gone to unimaginable extremes to shield their genocidal partners from facing justice, passing laws to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Israel and threatening to retaliate against the ICC chief prosecutor if he issues arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. As long as US officials continue to undermine the international justice system to run cover for Israel’s war crimes, it’s hard to see how Israel will stop murdering journalists in Gaza. Meanwhile, the United States continues to arm Israel with the weapons it uses to murder journalists like al-Ghoul.

Al-Ghoul devoted his life to sharing the truth of genocide with the world. His tragic death comes as a great loss amid shameful Western complicity and silence on Gaza. But his death should not be in vain, for while Israel may assassinate Gaza’s journalists, it could never assassinate the truth. To cite some of al-Ghoul’s last words:

“The genocide continues, and so does our coverage. We remain on the ground, ready to bring the news first. We won’t stop, no matter how exhausted our bodies and weary our spirits. We persist in delivering the truth, to ensure ongoing coverage from the heart of the events.”