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ARIJ report “Toxic Fumes: Gaza Under Siege,” produced by journalists Mohammed Mostafa Sawwaf, Salah Al-Haw, Hedaa Al-Dahdouh, and Ahmad Abu Ajwa, won the Award for News at the 2026 Hinzpeter Awards.
The film documents how the systematic Israeli destruction of power plants and energy facilities since October 7, 2023, effectively forced life in Gaza back into a primitive state. With the import of all fuel completely blocked, the report reveals how residents have been forced to extract gasoline and diesel by melting waste plastic in scrap-metal drums. Although this highly hazardous process generates toxic fumes that pose a lethal threat to their health and the already-devastated environment, it has remained the only way to obtain the essential energy needed to run water pumps, small generators, and rescue equipment.
«The apocalyptic reality of Gaza—reduced to a primitive state by the war—conveys, with striking realism, how war can drive the whole of humanity toward catastrophe» — The Hinzpeter Awards Jury
The Hinzpeter Awards aspire to recognize and honor video journalists who seek the truth, protect human rights and fight for justice as recorders of reality and chroniclers of history.
