Updated 03.18 | Published 02.23
Two Palestinian journalists who worked for the Al Jazeera television channel have died in an Israeli attack in Gaza. The channel, based in Qatar, claims it was a targeted attack.
It was Hamza Wael Dahdouh, son of the channel’s Gaza bureau chief, and Mustafa Thuria, who died in Sunday’s attack. According to Al Jazeera, they were on a mission to film the aftermath of an Israeli raid in Rafah in southern Gaza when their car was hit by rockets. A third journalist was seriously injured.
Mustafa Thuria also worked as a videographer on a freelance basis for, among others, AFP.
The Israeli army tells AFP that they fired at a “terrorist” and that they received reports that two other suspects in the car were also hit.
Hard punch
AFP foreign affairs director Phil Chetwynd says Mustafa Thuria’s death is a heavy blow.
– We condemn in the strongest possible terms all attacks against journalists when they are doing their job. It is very important that we get an explanation for what happened, says Chetwynd.
Asked about the incident at a press conference in Doha, Qatar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was an “unimaginable tragedy”
– And that also applies to too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children, said Blinken.
Al Jazeera’s management in a statement condemns Israel’s attack and accuses Israel of deliberately attacking journalists and doing violence to press freedom.
The third
It is the third Al Jazeera staffer to be killed since the war between Hamas and Israel started after the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October. In December, a cameraman was killed in an Israeli attack and the head of the channel’s office in Gaza, Wael al-Dahdouh, was seriously injured.