The macabre truth is that Israeli life is deemed by the western media to be worth more than a Palestinian life – this is the hierarchy of death at work.

Owen Jones states in The Guardian on the foreign media’s portrayal of the Palestinian conflict.

Recent media coverage of “Operation Protective Edge” has been lambasted by observers for creating 'false balance' in stories, constructing a narrative that depicts Israel and Hamas/Palestine as equals in inflicting violence and resulting losses.

With at least 121 Palestinians killed in the bombings, including 25 children, the media has been called out for headlines like, “Israel and Hamas Trade Attacks as Tensions Rises”.

Such a headline is misleading, given the slaughter of Palestinians that is continuing today. Constantly under siege, with no source of aid for the residents, Gaza’s plight is particularly tragic.

“It’s so hard when you see your entire family afraid and crying in front of you and you cannot do anything,” was the last Facebook update by Hani Siliman Salamah, a Palestinian activist who lives in Gaza.

Hani is one of the many Palestinians who use alternate media technology to broadcast live updates from their home, which is today, seeing a fifth day of relentless violence.

Hani uses mixlr.com, a live audio broadcasting website, which basically works like a radio station on the go. During the last few days, he has been broadcasting live from his home the sounds of drones flying by.

Hani's is just one of many Palestinian voices seeking to counter the mainstream media's take on the conflict.

So, how do journalists and student activists in Gaza, tell their stories?

According to Mohammed Alafifi, “The western media is totally biased towards Israel; they are even displaying the casualties in Gaza as if it happened in Israel.”

Alafifi, 30 is an International Relations officer at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, who has been actively updating the situation in Gaza on his Facebook page, which is being shared virally by his friends to fight the dominant narrative.

Definitions of occupation or rampant apartheid are often misrepresented into the “need for a two-state solution” or “racism”.

According to the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, 565 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces since January 2009, while 28 Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli security personnel have been killed.

The disparity of the ‘conflict’ lies bare in these disproportionate numbers.

Alternate voices that are speaking out from the ground in Gaza are gradually gaining audibility.

Mohammed Zeyara, another Palestinian youth who lives in Canada has almost five million likes on his Facebook page, which he uses to share videos and pictures - many of which are of a graphic nature - that the media cannot, or will not run.

Yet another Palestinian activist, Do’aa Ahmed says, “Sometimes, it takes a lot of time for news to reach the mainstream media, if it does at all that is. But this time, we are updating pictures and videos as it happens.”

In at least one instance, these alternate avenues of speech are challenging the mainstream and holding it accountable.

During a live broadcast of the current conflict, ABC misidentified a Palestinian family as Israeli.

“We take you overseas now to the rockets raining down on Israel today as Israel tried to shoot them out of the sky,” ABC anchor, Diane Sawyer told viewers, while images of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza appeared on the screen.

The news was called out by the global audience on Twitter with a hashtag #tweetlikeABC. The outcry was such that ABC had to admit to the misreporting and issue an apology.

As Omar Ghraieb from Gaza says, “We have a voice and we are capable of making it heard.”

The writer was born in Srinagar, Kashmir. A full-time undergraduate student in communication and a part-time poet, blogger and a news-freak. He tweets @_faysal