Foreign Correspondent for NBC News, Ayman Mohyeldin, witnessed the murder of four Palestinian boys via Israeli airstrike on Wednesday. After providing a firsthand account for NBC, he was contacted by the network’s executives, and was told to leave Gaza immediately.

NBC insisted that their decision to remove Mohyeldin from the region was due to “security concerns.” However, according to Journalist Glenn Greenwald, they quickly proceeded to replace Mohyeldin, who is an Arabic-speaking, Egyptian-American with experience reporting in the region, with Richard Engel and an American producer who has never been to Gaza and speaks no Arabic.

Mohyeldin’s account of Wednesday’s events in Gaza weren’t just limited to NBC – he also shared them with social media. On Twitter, he reported that he had been playing and kicking a ball with the young boys, just minutes before their lives were ended.

 

Mohyeldin also gave the boys an identity on Social Media, sharing their names and ages on Twitter.

While the words Mohyeldin wrote made readers aware of the details of the event, the pictures he shared with both Twitter and Instagram brought the horrific and tragic reality of the Bakr boys’ murder to life.

Mohyeldin posted the picture above on his Instagram, showing the reaction of a Palestinian mother, whose son was one of the victims of the Israeli airstrike.

A second Instagram post from Mohyeldin showed a Palestinian man grieving after he also learned that his son was one of the four victims.

Despite NBC’s decision to remove Mohyeldin from Gaza, he has gained the attention of Journalists like Glenn Greenwald, who wrote, “Over the last two weeks, Mohyeldin’s reporting has been far more balanced and even-handed than the standard pro-Israel coverage that dominates establishment American press coverage; his reports have provided context to the conflict that is missing from most American reports and he avoids adopting Israeli government talking points as truth.”