Gaza: Well-known Al Jazeera reporter loses fifth family member

Al Jazeera bureau chief
Dahdu’s wife, two children and a grandson died in the Gaza Strip – and now his eldest son too

Tragic loss for the well-known Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdu: After four of his family members died in an Israeli air strike in October, his eldest son has now also been killed. He was also a journalist.

According to the television channel Al-Jazeera, two Palestinian journalists were killed by Israeli rocket fire in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. Among the victims was Hamza Dahdu, the eldest son of the head of Al Jazeera’s office Gaza, Wael Dahdu. Wael Dahdu is a well-known correspondent for the station in the Arab world. In October he lost four family members in an Israeli air strike.

According to Al-Jazeera, Hamza Dahdu was also a journalist and was driving a vehicle near al-Mawasi, a supposedly safe area on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip, when a rocket hit the car. The second journalist killed was Mustafa Thuraya, who reported from the Gaza Strip for several international news agencies and broadcasters. A third inmate, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.

According to Al Jazeera, the vehicle was “targeted” as the journalists were traveling to interview civilians displaced by previous bombings. The AFP news agency reports, citing eyewitnesses, that the car was shot at with two rockets. The second hit Dahdu, who was sitting in the passenger seat, directly.

Israel says attack in Gaza was aimed at “terrorist”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the attack was aimed at a terrorist. “An IDF aircraft identified and hit a terrorist who was piloting an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF forces,” the army said. “We are aware of reports that two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit during the attack.”

In late October, Wael Dahdu was reporting on Israel’s counterattack against Hamas, which had previously invaded Israel and massacred some 1,140 people, when he received news that his wife, seven-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son were at one were killed in an Israeli airstrike. His one-year-old grandson, wounded in the same attack, died hours later. Al Jazeera later showed footage of Dahdu, who had a total of eight children, weeping over his son’s body while still wearing his blue press vest. In December, the 53-year-old himself was wounded in an Israeli attack on a school in the city of Khan Yunis.

After the death of his son Hamza, in a speech at the cemetery, Wael Dahdu vowed, despite the pain of the series of losses, to continue on his path and show the world what is happening in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports. He is one of the many people there who have to say goodbye to their relatives every day. “Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul,” the station quotes the father as saying. “These are the tears of farewell and loss, the tears of humanity.”

Hamza Dahdu had one million followers on Instagram. His last contribution before his death was to his father. “You are steadfast and patient. Do not despair of God’s mercy. Be sure that he will reward you,” he wrote.

US Secretary of State Blinken speaks of “unimaginable tragedy”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling in the Middle East this week, said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of Dahdu. “As a parent myself, I cannot imagine the horror he experienced, not once, but twice,” Blinken said during a stay in Qatar. “This is an unimaginable tragedy, including for far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children.”

The Al Jazeera media network, based in Qatar, condemned the attack on the journalists’ car “in the strongest possible terms” and accused Israel of “violating the principles of press freedom.” AFP was also dismayed. “We strongly condemn any attacks on journalists doing their work and it is important that we get a clear explanation for what happened,” the news agency said.

Sources: Al-Jazeera, Associated Press, BBCAFP