NUJ holds Derry vigil in memory of journalists and civilians killed in Gaza

A one minute’s silence has been observed at a vigil in Derry’s Guildhall Square in memory of the journalists and civilians killed in the conflict in Gaza.

On Monday (August 25, 2025), journalists Mohammed Salama; Moaz Abu Taha; Hussam al Masri; Ahmed Abu Aziz and Mariam Dagga were murdered in an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Southern Gaza.

The vigil, which took place on Wednesday afternoon, was organised by the Derry and Northwest branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Addressing those present, branch secretary Anton McCabe said Israel, through its repeated actions showed contempt for press freedom.

Derry & Northwest branch of the National Union of Journalists Vigil in Guildhall Square - @DerryNow digital report thread.

A minute's silence was observed at the @NUJofficial vigil, on Wednesday evening, August 27, 2025, in solidarity with civilians & journalists -… pic.twitter.com/2XV0HUTk3C

— Catherine McGinty (@CathMcGin_Tea) August 28, 2025

He added: “It breached the UN Convention recognising the rights of civilians, which included journalists. Its record contradicts the claim of the Israeli Defence Force’s chief of staff that Israel does not target journalists.

“We need global action to end this war on truth and that includes an investigation into the targeting of journalists.

“The attempt to tarnish the reputation of journalists in these killings has been nauseating, while little attention has been afforded to other civilians killed, often unarmed and forgotten.

“Journalists in Gaza are working in atrocious conditions and in constant danger. Many are freelancers or contractors working in restricted areas, with limited rights or social protection. Israel must stop killing journalists and end the ban on foreign journalists entering the region,” said Mr McCabe.

Speaking to The Derry News, former BBC journalist Noreen Erskine said she was attending the Vigil because she was “beyond horrified at what is happening in Gaza, to journalists and to the ordinary people”.

Vigil co-organiser, journalist Darach MacDonald told the crowd they were “once again witnessing Israel’s onslaught on journalists it is legally obligated to protect in an illegal occupation that continues year after year in defiance of extensive UN resolutions.”

He added: “We should all be used to this by now. The toll of medical and relief workers along with thousands of innocent men, women and children has almost numbed our sensibilities.

“What seemed abhorrent and unbelievable two years ago has become the norm.

“Yet we come here as the Derry and Northwest of Ireland District Branch of the National Union of Journalists to mourn our Palestinian colleagues, members of the Palestinian Journalism Syndicate - a fellow union affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists. We join NUJ branches in Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Brussels and other centres.

“Two years ago we gathered in shock and mourning for our sister Shireen Abu Akleh of Al Jazeera. Long before October 7, 2023, Shireen was shot dead in cold blood while working as a TV reporter in the West Bank. We have actually lost count since then of the number of fellow Palestinian journalists targeted and killed by the IDF. Estimates vary depending on the agency and the criteria used.

“However, an aggregation of sources including the Committee for the protection of Journalists in New York and the Brussels-based International Federation of journalists concluded that by August 11 last, the IDF had killed 274 journalists in Gaza of whom 269 were Palestinians.”

To applause, journalist Felicity McCall read aloud journalist Anas Al-Sharif's final message to the world.
Palestinian journalist and videographer for Al Jazeera Arabic, Al-Sharif was killed along with four journalists in a tent outside the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on August 10, 2025.

He wrote: “If these words reach you, know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice.

“I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification - so that Allah may bear witness against those who stayed silent, those who accepted our killing, those who choked our breath, and whose hearts were unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women, doing nothing to stop the massacre that our people have faced for more than a year and a half.

“I entrust you with Palestine - the jewel in the crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in this world. I entrust you with its people, with its wronged and innocent children who never had the time to dream or live in safety and peace. Their pure bodies were crushed under thousands of tons of Israeli bombs and missiles, torn apart and scattered across the walls.

“I urge you not to let chains silence you, nor borders restrain you. Be bridges toward the liberation of the land and its people, until the sun of dignity and freedom rises over our stolen homeland,” wrote Anas Al-Sharif'.

Concluding the vigil, veteran journalist Eamonn McCann said he had spoken on behalf of a number of organisations and ideologies in Guildhall Square from “time to time”.

“But my union [NUJ] is the body which owns my soul,” he added. “I have been a journalist for more than 50 years. I remember my first job which was in the Sunday World. I remember the then editor Joe Kennedy - who was an old socialist from the 1930s - saying to me, ‘Always remember, son, it is not true that the truth will set you free but it is true that without the truth you can never be free’.

“And that is at the core of all journalism. [In past conflicts] we have seen the enormous power which honest journalism can have in shaping public opinion and as far as the NUJ is concerned, shaping public opinion with as much truth as the law and the forces of oppression are minded to give us,

“[We should] also remember Lyra McKee, a journalist shot dead in Creggan Estate in 2019. A few years before that we had a loyalist paramilitary group shooting Martin O’Hagan, who also worked for the Sunday World, as he walked home from a night out with his wife in Lurgan in County Armagh.

“These are a couple of instances we can remember from our own experiences as an NUJ. It is those things which keep us focused on the truth,”