Malak A Tantesh

Aged just 20, Malak A Tantesh began reporting for the Guardian from Gaza in 2024 while she was living in a tent with her family. For the next 18 months, before being evacuated in a UK government-sponsored convoy, Tantesh reported almost daily on the worsening conflict and humanitarian disaster.

She worked in some of the hardest conditions ever faced by journalists, foraging for food and facing the constant threat of bombing and targeted killing. She lost her grandmother, uncle and numerous other relatives but continued her reporting with resolve.

When the Israelis killed 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers and buried them in a shallow grave, Tantesh’s interviews played a leading role in exposing the massacre. She delivered a heartbreaking account of her family’s 11-hour walk to their hometown of Beit Lahia, only to find their home in ruins, her memories “crushed and buried.” And she reported from the children’s ward of a hospital at the height of the famine.  

In a valedictory article looking back on two years of war, she wrote of how, at times, surviving members of her family envied the dead. No wonder Guardian editors say they have “never been so proud of a correspondent”. 

Judges’ comments: “Very courageous and mature reporting by a young journalist in extremely difficult circumstances.”