Journalist vows to report Gaza's plight despite losing family in air strikes

Wael Al-Dahdouh, 54, the head of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau, who bravely returned to live broadcasting after the devastating loss of his wife, two children, and a grandchild in an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza Strip refugee camp amid last year's war with the Palestinian armed group Hamas, has tragically lost his eldest son, Hamza, aged 28, a camera journalist for the same network. This tragic war has now claimed five members of his family. Dahdouh, in a poignant gesture, attended Hamza's funeral wearing his regular blue bulletproof vest marked ‘press,’ deepening the sense of loss.

Al Jazeera reported that Hamza was killed instantly in an Israeli airstrike while he was driving to cover a story in a nearby refugee camp in Khan Yunis, the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip. In the same attack, another journalist in the car was killed, and three others were injured. The extensively damaged car, missing its roof and hood, starkly illustrated the airstrike's brutality.

Dahdouh himself had previously been injured in an airstrike while reporting last December. Gripping his late son's hand, now cold in death, and wearing a protective brace on his own right hand, he attended the funeral. “Observe what is happening to civilians and journalists in Gaza. There is no justice here,” the father said in a statement filled with anguish.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported that since the war between Israel and Hamas began last October, at least 77 journalists, including Hamza, have been killed as of Thursday. The CPJ is urging for an independent investigation into the incident involving Hamza.


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