Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief’s journalist son killed in Israeli airstrike

Israel-Hamas war: The Gaza health ministry has informed that two more journalists were killed in an  Israeli airstrike while they were travelling in a car. The death toll of journalists in this war waged by Israel on Gaza was calculated at 77 till 31 December 2023. 

One of the journalist who lost their life today was a video stringer for AFP news agency, Mustafa Thuria. According to the news agency Thuria had worked with AFP since 2019.

Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh, also lost his journalist son, a 28-year-old Hamza Wael Dahdouh. Dahdouh, also an Al Jazeera journalist, and Thuria had been travelling in the same car when an Israeli airstrike killed both of them. 

According to Middle East Eye, Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were killed by an Israeli missile in Khan Younis, in occupied Palestine.

A third freelancer, Hazem Rajab, was wounded.

Notably, on 25 October, Wael al-Dahdouh, had lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson to an Israeli airstrike, while sheltering in a relative’s home.

Dahdouh’s seven-year-old daughter Sham was then the second-youngest of the victims. Wael al-Dahdouh also lost his 15 year old son Mahmoud.

The youngest was Wael’s grandson, Adam, who was one and a half, reports Al Jazeera.

“It’s a difficult moment in the life of a Palestinian journalist, when they go to cover an incident for the news and find out that the news is their own family.” Wael had told Al Jazeera

Last month, Wael was himself wounded by an Israeli strike that killed his Al Jazeera colleague Samer Abudaqa.

A video posted on an Al Jazeera-linked YouTube channel showed Wael Al-Dahdouh crying next to his son’s body and holding his hand. Later, after his son’s burial, he said in televised remarks that journalists in Gaza would keep doing their job.

“All the world needs to see what is happening here,” he said.

By 31 December, at least 77 journalists and media workers had been killed since the October 7 start of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the new York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Of those 77, 70 were Palestinian, four Israeli, and three Lebanese.

A Reuters investigations has also found that among journalists who have died covering the conflict was Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah. A Lebanese citizen, he was killed on 13 October by an Israeli tank crew while filming cross-border shelling in Lebanon

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Published: 07 Jan 2024, 06:02 PM IST