08 January 2024 , 10:36
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This is the heartbreaking moment a Gaza journalist mourns another of his dead children, after already losing his wife and two kids to Israeli airstrikes.
Wael al-Dahdouh is Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief and has covered the conflict since Hamas’ horrific October 7 attack, through the days of fighting since. However, the war has taken an immense personal toll on the dad as he’s lost a number of his children, his wife and a grandchild in Israeli airstrikes.
Most recently his eldest son, who had followed in his footsteps and became a journalist as well, was also killed yesterday evening by a drone strike during Israel’s war with Hamas. Hamza al-Dahdouh had been an Al Jazeera journalist and cameraman, working under his father. However, he was recently killed in an Israeli drone strike, along with freelance journalist Mustafa Thuraya. A third journalist, Hazem Rajab, was seriously wounded.
Heartbreaking footage has emerged of the father mourning his eldest son. Stood over his body, Wael experiences something now father should by outliving their children. Wearing his ‘press’ flak jacket, he is surrounded by others who comfort him during the tragedy. Crying, he can be seen peeling back the plastic bag to look at his son one last time.
In October, he lost his wife Amna, his grandchild Adam, his 15-year-old son Mahmoud, and seven-year-old daughter Sham in another Israeli strike. The BBC reported that Hamza had been en route to a designated “humanitarian zone” when he was killed on the road between Khan Younis and Rafah.
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However, the Israeli Defence Force claimed that the strike had been aimed at a "terrorist" who had been operating a drone, and that it was aware that two others were in the "same vehicle" The Times of Israel said. A spokesperson for Al Jazeera said the network strongly condemns the Israeli attack and branded it an "assassination". They said the journalists were on their way to carry out "their duty" and that they would take legal action against the country’s forces.
Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Al-Dahdouh mourns his son Hamza Wael Al-Dahdouh who was killed over the weekend (Anadolu via Getty Images)They continued: "The Israeli occupation forces have systematically targeted our colleague Wael al-Dahdoh and his family, killing his wife, son, daughter, and grandson in November 2023. Wael and his colleague, the late Samer Abu Daqqa, cameraman, were also targeted in December 2023.
"The assassination of his son Hamza in January 2024 confirms without a doubt the Israeli forces’ determination to continue these brutal attacks against journalists and their families, aiming to discourage them from performing their mission, violating the principles of freedom of the press and undermines the right to life."
Hamza Al-Dahdouh (right) had followed in his father's footsteps to become a journalist as well (@hamzadah1996/X)According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 79 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7. On October 27, after Reuters and AFP sought assurances their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip would be safe, the IDF refused to guarantee their safety, Reuters reported.
This comes as the United Nations have warned that Gaza is now "uninhabitable" following months of conflict. On October 7 last year, Hamas launched a bloody surprise attack across the Gaza-Israeli border that claimed over 1,200 lives and led to over 200 hostages, including children and the elderly, being taken.
The Gaza bureau chief has now lost three children and his wife (Anadolu via Getty Images)Israel then launched a bloody campaign of air attacks on the Gaza Strip, before invading. They have since displaced almost the entire population of two million people, left them destitute with hospitals beyond capacity, food and medicine supplies dwindling and charities pleading for a ceasefire so they can help those inside.
Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said: "Three months since the horrific 7 October attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair.
Wael hugs his daughter, one of his only surviving children as the UN now warns Gaza is 'uninhabitable' (Ibrahim Al-Khatib/UPI/REX/Shutterstock)"Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured. Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.
"A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner.
"For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out. Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on.
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"The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent.
"Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, tensions in the West Bank are boiling, and the spectre of further regional spill over of the war is looming dangerously close."