Posting on the frontline How citizen journalists chronicle the conflict

The video that made Plestia AIaqad go viral was simple yet traumatic. She was filming in a neighbour's flat in Gaza City early in Israel's assault, showing how they had removed the glass from the windows and were sheltering in the interior.

- Ruth Michaelson

As she filmed, a series of strikes hit close to the building, filling the air with dust. AIaqad did not flinch but her face became an open mouthed mask of shock.

"I was trying to explain things, but I think you can hear them now," she said. The video has been liked more than 200,000 times.

Looking back at the video from an uncomfortable exile in Australia, AIaqad, 22, was as surprised as any viewer about her lack of reaction.

"I understand why the video went viral, why people ask how I can be calm in a situation like that, whether I'm used to these things, or traumatised. People wonder, because I wonder too," she said.

AIaqad quickly went from using Instagram to teach outsiders about daily life in Gaza to becoming a war reporter. Before the war, she worked for a marketing agency and conducted media training. She used Instagram to share everyday life in Gaza, posting rows of colourful parasols at the beach or selfies with her friends. The goal, she says, was to show there was more than conflict and destruction.

After the Hamas attack on 7 October, AIaqad received calls to work as a reporter for British and French televisions channels, and her Instagram turned into a personal account of the war.

Her feed rapidly filled with pictures of destroyed neighbourhoods and strangers sharing their food amid shortages.

AIaqad recalls standing in a tent filled with corpses, and walking among the rubble trying to remember what buildings stood there before.