Wael Al Dahdouh is a senior Al Jazeera journalist based in Gaza.
New Delhi:
Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh – who 24 hours ago mourned the death of his wife, son, daughter and nine other family members in an Israeli air strike – has vowed to continue reporting on Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza. Mr Dahdouh told state-run Turkish news agency Anadolu, “This will never silence our voices. Journalism is my noble mission.” “Israel is targeting civilians and committing massacres against families. This is part of what Palestinian families living in Gaza go through every day,” Mr Dahdouh said.
Mr Dahdouh, who is Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, was told his wife and children had been killed shortly after a live broadcast from the besieged enclave on Thursday.
Hours later Al Jazeera aired visuals from the morgue in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Palestine’s Deir el-Balah, where a grief-stricken Wael Al Dahdouh cradled the body of his seven-year-old daughter and cried over those of his wife and 15-year-old son.
READ | “In Gaza, No Safe Place”: Girl’s Plea Before Mother Dies In Israeli Strike
Mr Dahdouh’s two older children – Mahmoud and his sister Kholoud – are believed to have survived the attack. Days earlier they had shared a video message to the global community, highlighting the utter devastation in Gaza and pleading for help.
“Help us to stay alive” was their outcry to the world from Gaza.
Mahmoud, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Wael Dahdouh son, joined by his sister Kholoud, sent a message to the world, days before Mahmoud, his mother, and younger sister Sham were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/HWJ8SjIpvx
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
“Whole neighbourhoods have been destroyed,” Kholoud says in a video that shows residential buildings reduced to rubble and entire streets covered in that debris.
“In Gaza there is no safe place…”
READ | Why Israel Is Attacking South Gaza After Telling Civilians To Go There
The Dahdouh family was among a million civilians ordered by Israel to flee from north Gaza ahead of strikes that targeted residential neighbourhoods, as well as schools, mosques and hospitals. Israel also temporarily rolled tanks into north Gaza – the first step in its widely anticipated ground offensive.
READ | Israeli Tanks Enter North Gaza In “Targeted” Overnight Raid, Retreat Later
The family was sheltering in the United Nations-recognised Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which was called a “safe area” by Israeli forces.
The family of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh has been killed in an Israeli attack at the Al Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, where they had forcibly evacuated to shelter from Israeli bombardments ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ya64Lgunbp
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
Despite the loss – shared by tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children from Gaza, Israel and other nationalities caught up in this bloody war – Mr Dahdough insisted to Anadolu he will continue covering Israel’s strikes on Palestinians.
Tel Aviv’s attacks on Gaza follows the October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas that claimed over 1,400 lives, including civilians and children. Israel has described the Hamas terrorists as “animals” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised revenge.
Nearly 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict – the bloodiest of the five wars between Israel and Gaza so far. The dead include more than 6,500 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis, as well as foreign nationalities.
Tel Aviv has allowed small aid convoys to enter Gaza, a heavily blockaded strip of land home to over two million people, but it is only a fraction of basic supplies needed.
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