With powerful scenes from the Cannes Film Festival and growing international outrage over what many now believe was a targeted assassination of a young Palestinian journalist.
Fatma Hassona, a 25-year-old photojournalist from Gaza, was killed last month alongside her pregnant sister and other family members in an Israeli airstrike. But new evidence presented this week suggests her death was no accident.
Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, speaking to a packed theater at Cannes on Thursday, made a chilling revelation: she believes Hassona was deliberately targeted. The claim comes as her documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” premiered at the world-renowned festival—just one day after Fatma’s death.
The emotional film tells the story of life in war-torn Gaza through video calls between Farsi and Hassona, who served as what the director described as her “eyes in Gaza.” The documentary received a standing ovation at its debut, as audience members wept openly.
Farsi stated she now has proof of the targeted nature of the strike that killed the young journalist. Citing a report by the UK-based research group Forensic Architecture, Farsi said the two missiles that struck Hassona’s home were programmed to hit the precise floor where she lived. According to the report, the missiles directly targeted the second-floor apartment of the Hassona family’s building in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military responded to the allegations on Thursday, claiming the April 16 strike targeted a Hamas militant and that efforts were made to avoid civilian casualties.
Since the start of the war, over 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza—marking the deadliest conflict for media workers on record. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has documented repeated concerns that journalists in Gaza are being deliberately targeted, accusations the Israeli military denies.
Farsi, speaking with France 24 ahead of the festival, condemned the silence of the international community and the global film industry over what she called “a massacre.”
“There was no justification for the October 7 attack,” Farsi said, referring to the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel. “But nothing justifies what is happening now in Gaza. We cannot stand by and do nothing.”
The conflict has already claimed more than 52,000 lives in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to local health officials.
On the eve of Cannes, prominent voices in the film world—including Ralph Fiennes and Richard Gere—signed an open letter condemning the industry’s silence. Festival jury president Juliette Binoche also paid tribute to Hassona, reading from one of her poems during the opening ceremony.
Tonight, the world watches as the tragedy of war and the power of cinema collide on one of the world’s biggest stages.
We will continue to follow this story as it develops.
Reporting by Carl montel.
