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A young Palestinian journalist whose coverage of the widespread destruction and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip went viral is now monitoring the war from afar in Lebanon.

Plestia Alaqad, 22, had just finished her journalism studies when she suddenly found herself in the middle of a war zone. She put on a blue press helmet and vest to interview families in refugee camps and hospitals and posted the videos on Instagram.

“I can't just watch what's happening without doing something,” she told The Associated Press in an interview in Beirut on Tuesday.

Alaqad, from Gaza City, where she lived, was one of a handful of young journalists and media workers who shared their experiences on social media, as journalists from abroad are not allowed access to the Palestinian enclave. She now has over 4.5 million followers on Instagram.

Alaqad landed in Lebanon last month to pursue a master's degree in media studies at the American University of Beirut after winning a scholarship named after legendary Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in 2022 while covering an Israeli military attack in the occupied West Bank.

Today, she spends her days on the quiet, tree-lined AUB campus or in the cafes of Hamra Street in Beirut, but her thoughts remain in Gaza.

“You're a journalist and a Palestinian living through this,” Alaqad told AP as she sat on the terrace of one of these cafes, wearing a traditional black-and-white keffiyeh scarf. Balancing those two roles “was the hard part,” she said.

By the time she graduated from university, she had already experienced three wars in the Gaza Strip, but the war that began on October 7 was on a completely different scale.

According to the Health Ministry, over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by the Israeli airstrike and ground offensive triggered by Hamas' deadly attack on southern Israel – which killed around 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage. The war has caused enormous destruction across the territory, wiping out entire neighborhoods and severely damaging key infrastructure.

“It broke my heart to see children standing in line for hours just to buy bread or fill water tanks,” Alaqad said. “Instead of going to school, these children are standing in line to do these tasks.”

By reporting on the impact of the humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel's blockade of Gaza and the efforts of aid agencies to reach civilians, she hoped to counteract what she saw as the “dehumanization” of Palestinians in the wider media and show that they are more than “just numbers”.

“I tried to connect with people and get to know them on a deeper level so that people can remember their names, their smiles and who they are,” Alaqad said.

Reporting was often difficult for her while simultaneously having to worry about her own well-being and the safety of her family.

Power and telecommunications outages made charging devices and uploading material a challenge at times, and she sometimes had to stop her work to secure basic items like food.

“I thought, 'What a downgrade' – why am I spending three hours of my day just looking for eggs?” she said.

During her nearly two months of covering the war, Alaqad says she was displaced several times and had to move between homes and hospitals in Gaza City before heading south to live with relatives in Khan Younis.

One night, her mother told her that her uncle in Australia had arranged temporary evacuation visas for them and that the family was on a list that required them to leave for Egypt via the Rafah border crossing within a few hours.

Alaqad said she was reluctant to leave but felt that continuing to cover the war would ultimately be a death sentence, so she travelled to Australia in late November.

The United Nations and human rights organizations are alarmed by the large number of journalists killed in Gaza since October 7. The Committee to Protect Journalists says it has confirmed that at least 111 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza.

In March, three dozen leading representatives of news organizations from around the world, including AP, signed a letter expressing solidarity with journalists in the small enclave and advocating for their safety and freedom to report there.

“Either you are violently expelled from your country, or you end up being targeted and killed,” Alaqad said. “I felt at one point that we would all stay in Gaza and just get killed, and the story would never get out.”

Since she left, Israeli military operations have razed more and more parts of Gaza. The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced and no longer have access to the Rafah border crossing. Large-scale polio vaccinations began on Sunday in response to an outbreak of the rare disease, while humanitarian organizations warn that a lack of aid and deteriorating living conditions pose major public health risks.

Efforts mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States to achieve a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages have so far been unsuccessful.

Alaqad said the destruction of schools and universities in Gaza has given her even more importance to continue her education. She hopes to return after a ceasefire is agreed to report on the reconstruction of Gaza and the Palestinians' ongoing struggle for self-determination.

“You can leave Gaza, but I don’t think Gaza can ever leave you,” she said.