Letter: This is the story of Palestinian teenager Sha’ban al-Dalou, whose shocking death the media don’t want to report

I write this to bring to your attention details concerning the life and recent death of a 19-year-old Palestinian boy, Sha’ban al-Dalou.

You probably won’t have heard of him or his family – his death has gone virtually unreported across western news outlets.

He is just one more dead Palestinian in a genocide where our news media continues to ignore the plight of the innocent victims while actively providing cover for their killers.

Contrast this with the reporting of the four IDF soldiers recently killed in a Hezbollah drone attack on an Israeli military base.

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Each soldier is named alongside their photo in the reports, complete with video footage of the bloodstained scene of the attack.

Bizarrely, they were referred to in one report as ‘teenage victims’ rather than IDF combatants.

Sha’ban al-Dalou, a non-combatant lying in a hospital bed, was the same age but his death, on the same day, doesn’t even merit a mention, let alone recognition as a teenage victim.

So much of the western media has chosen to ignore the murder of Sha’ban al Dalou at the hands of the IDF, of which these four ‘teenage victims’ were serving members.

You likely won’t have seen a photo of this young man on the news or in print media or details of his life that might actually humanise him.

Sha’ban al-Dalou was a software engineering student at Al-Azhar University in Gaza and was burned alive after an Israeli air strike hit Al-Aqsa Hospital, which also killed three others.

Sha’ban was forcefully displaced last year after Israeli forces destroyed his home and had just started his university studies in September 2023. Last week, he miraculously survived an Israeli strike on a mosque that claimed 20 lives.

Sha’ban and his mother perished in the fire after Israel attacked the hospital, engulfing the tent camp for displaced civilians in Gaza.

It’s surely obvious now that we must not only continue to question the source and validity of reports relating to Palestine, but also look past the narrative being presented and be aware that there are many other ongoing atrocities and victims whose stories are not being reported.

We must keep talking about the plight of the Palestinian people.

And now, despite best efforts of news editors and programme producers to ignore it, to tell the story of Sha’ban al-Dalou.

Réamann Ó hÓgáin, Newry, Co Down

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