Thursday, October 3, 2024

Family of Al Jazeera journalist killed in attack on Gaza

Wael Dahdouh has been the constant face of wartime news from Gaza for Al Jazeera Arab viewers. But on Wednesday night, his work took a personal turn when he learned that the strikes he had covered from the ground all day had claimed the lives of his wife, teenage son, daughter and grandson.

Al Jazeera, said the Qatar-owned news channel where Dahdouh works Journalist’s family killed in Israeli attack on Nusirat refugee camp. The Israeli military said it was “verifying” the reports.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s senior White House correspondent, Wajd Waqfi, said he announced the strike earlier, “not knowing that some of the dead in that Israeli bombing included family members.” said in a post on social media platform X.

In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network said, “The network strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of the Wael Al-Dahdouh family and countless others.”

The Washington Post could not independently verify the source of the strike.

On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera aired a video of him walking through the halls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in his press suit, blinking back tears and flanked by other members of the press who held him and guided him. He was brought to a tent filled with body bags, including his son’s. In the footage, he looks down, raises his arms and bends down to embrace the dead body of his son Mahmoud.

“Are you taking revenge by killing our children?” In a video released by Al Jazeera, Tahtuh said, touching her son’s face and crying. His son wanted to be a journalist like his father, the outlet reported.

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Other pictures and footage showed him holding up the body of his 7-year-old daughter Sham, her face covered in blood.

Some of Dahdouh’s other family members are being treated in hospital, Al Jazeera reported, adding that his son Yehia was being treated urgently in a hospital hallway.

Dahtu’s family fled northern Gaza after Israel ordered more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza to leave the area ahead of an expected ground invasion. They went to the town of Nusirat in what Israel said were considered safe areas.

Al Jazeera Correspondent Youmna Elsayed said It was “heartbreaking” to report on Dahdouh’s family and to “see how broken” he was.

“Val was always a strong man,” Elsayed said. “We all turn to him when we are sad or don’t feel safe. He calms us all down and talks to us like a big brother, not just a Bureau Chief.

Other journalists broken Dahdouh’s family members aired while reporting the killing.

Last weekIsrael’s government has approved emergency regulations that would allow Al Jazeera’s local offices to close on grounds of harm to national security.

Journalists Killed in the Israel-Gaza War: A Look at Lives Lost

A Interview Hours after discovering his family had been killed, Dahtuh said, “No one is safe from the aggression and treachery of the occupation.”

Even so, his colleagues expect Dahdouh to continue reporting, Al Jazeera reported. And in his interview, Dahdouh seemed committed to continuing to broadcast what was happening in Gaza.

“When we do our duty, we do it with the utmost professionalism – in the midst of bodies and wounded, and in the midst of destruction,” Dahdouh said. “We are working [so that] We capture everything that happens on the ground, without any myth or exaggeration.

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Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, pointed out to the channel that Tahtouh, who worked as an Al Jazeera journalist, had covered Gaza. Two decades“He lives in the midst of death and confusion and destruction.”

“Listening to him, you’d expect an angry man to curse, but he didn’t,” Bishara said. “His revenge is telling the truth.”

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