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Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh has lost almost his entire family – and several colleagues – during the war in Gaza.
Now he has temporarily left the Palestinian territory.
The channel’s bureau chief is to receive treatment for injuries after an Israeli attack.
His fate has been followed by the whole world.
Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al Dahdouh, has become a symbol for the many local journalists who are the only ones able to report on the ground from the isolated Palestinian territory.
In the more than three months that have passed since Israel’s war in Gaza, he has also become the news himself – with his life at stake.
In late October, he reported on an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where he and his family had evacuated under instructions from the Israeli army, only to soon discover that several family members had been killed.
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full screen Wael al-Dahdouh in the hospital. Photo: Social Media
12 of the family were killed
A total of 12 members of Wael Al Dahdouh’s family, including his wife and granddaughter, were killed in the attack.
Shortly after the family members were buried, the journalist appeared in the TV box again.
“Despite all the difficulties, despite deaths in his own family, he picked himself up in a few minutes to do his job,” described Al Jazeera’s political analyst Marwan Bishara some time later.
In mid-December it happened again.
Al Dahdouh and cameraman Samer Abudaqa were covering an Israeli attack on a UN school in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza when a drone strike occurred.
Lost colleague
Wael Al Dahdouh was injured in one arm and was taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis with what were described as minor injuries.
Abudaqa was left in the devastation.
The own channel reported that paramedics were alerted, including by Al Dahdouh himself, but could not get to the scene because Israeli shelling was still ongoing. Only after more than five hours could a safe rescue operation be coordinated.
By then it was too late.
The site The Intercept has recently reported that the Israeli military deliberately left Samer Abudaqa to bleed to death.
“Were attacked”
It is also written that several pieces of evidence point to the drone attack on the journalists being targeted.
– There was no one else but us in this area. So there was no room for miscalculation by the Israeli military, drones both large and small hovered throughout the area. They knew about everything we were doing all the time, and we were attacked when we were leaving – I have no doubt about this, Wael Al Dahdouh told The Intercept in the same article.
At the beginning of the year, the third attack took place against a close relative of the agency head.
Described as targeted attack
Eldest son, journalist Hamza Al Dahdouh, was killed along with videographer Mustafa Thuraya in an Israeli missile attack on Khan Yunis.
Even that attack has been described by Al Jazeera as targeting the journalists.
The Israeli military has written in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) that Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya were “terrorists who committed terrorist acts against Israel”, something that has not been verified by independent sources.
After the burial of the son, Wael Al Dahdouh addressed the many who contacted and sent condolences. In a clip shared by the employer, he thanked all the support, and said he will continue to report on what is happening in Gaza.
– Even if the pain is great, it will not stop us from continuing, he said among other things.
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full screen Wael Al Dahdouh. Photo: Facebook
Hope to return
Since the attack in Khan Yunis in December, Wael Al Dahdouh has been seen with a bandage on his arm, reports continued from Gaza.
But now he will receive care.
After an application by the Egyptian Federation of Journalists was approved by Israel, Wael Al Dahdouh was taken out of Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Tuesday evening, first to Egypt and then on to the Qatari capital of Doha, where Al Jazeera is also based.
Before the departure for Qatar, he was interviewed by the Egyptian Al Qahera News, a clip that is now spreading on social media.
– I hope I can return to reporting as soon as my arm is taken care of, he said then.
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full screen Wael Al Dahdouh with a bandage on his arm. Photo: Facebook
FACTS Journalists in Gaza particularly vulnerable
The journalist organization Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) has stated that the war in Gaza is the deadliest for journalists since the organization started keeping statistics 30 years ago.
As of January 16, at least 83 journalists have been killed during Israel’s war in Gaza, 67 of whom have been Palestinians, according to CPJ.
Another journalists’ organization, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), accuses the Israeli military of deliberately killing journalists in Gaza, reports SVT Nyheter.
Tim Dawson, deputy general secretary at IFJ tells SVT:
– The widespread perception among journalists in Gaza is that journalists are targets for Israeli attacks. Many journalists have told me how they receive warning phone calls days before they are shot at or bombed.
Read moreFACTSBackground
This weekend marked 100 days since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel in what is being called the worst massacre of Jews in modern times.
Over 1,100 people, mainly Israelis, were killed and 240 people were kidnapped. 130 of them are still believed to be with Hamas in Gaza.
The military invasion that Israel launched shortly afterwards against the Gaza Strip – with the aim of eradicating Hamas – has been very bloody. By Palestinians it is called a new Nakba, the name of the expulsion of Palestinians that took place in 1948 when the state of Israel was established.
According to the Hamas-controlled health department in Gaza, over 24,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been killed by Israeli attacks, the majority of them women and children. Over 60,000 have been injured.
A whole outside world has been able to follow the war, both through daily updates from the Israeli military (IDF) and the local Palestinian journalists who report from inside the isolated Gaza with their lives at stake.
The UN, the World Health Organization and several aid organizations warn that no place in Gaza is safe, that the health care system is collapsing, and that people are living in famine-like conditions.
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