On August 25, 2025, six Gaza journalists and crew members of various news outlets were killed in a bombing at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to an article published by Palestinian news source, Al Jazeera.

This “double-tap” missile strike from Israel on the city’s main medical facility killed 21 people, and for nearly two years, violence has taken over the Gaza strip with a death toll rising to roughly 66,000 people, per NPR.

What does the specific targeting of journalists tell the world about this war? Dr. Raz Segal, Stockton University Associate Professor and Program Director of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, says, “It’s a war only if we really describe it as a genocidal war.”

Noting the importance of language used when discussing this conflict, he continues: “genocide is meant to destroy everything, including the memory of lives before the genocide […] The mass murder of journalists is a way to make sure that these stories will not be collected, will not be documented.”

A Stockton Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) member also comments that “[social] media, journalism, and campus activism: they’re all connected. They’re all being suppressed.”

This comment came alongside the mention of the firing of a tenured faculty member by Muhlenberg College. An SJP spokesperson also says, “We’re lucky and fortunate enough to be here at Stockton, where we don’t have any companies to divest from. Because we don’t take any donations of that kind from those kinds of companies that would be supporting Israel, [unlike] some other colleges like Columbia.”

So, what is the role of universities in this? Segal states, “[universities] are supposed to be places that are fully committed to research and to truth and documented reality, right? And so none of this is new, right? This kind of assault on reality.”

When asked about the probable course of action in terms of accountability for the murder of the six journalists, Segal said, “International law today is in deep crisis, but there’s also significant struggle going on. And you know, many days it seems very dire because it’s just massive, massive power.”

He detailed some of the difficulty associated with investigating the bombing at such a critical time in Gaza.

In terms of what Stockton students taking interest in these events can do, both the SJP and Segal emphasize the importance of remaining aware of current events in Palestine. Updates may not appear in traditional national media but it is encouraged to actively seek news from international sources.

Segal closed the interview admitting, “Most days I’m absolutely hopeless. But I have to say that, you know, it really doesn’t matter if we’re hopeless or not. What matters is what we do”.