Hamza Al-Dahdouh, son of Wael Dahdouh and also a journalist, was killed along with colleague Mustafa Thuraya after an Israeli military airstrike on a car near Rafah in southern Gaza, according to health officials in Gaza and the journalists' association there.
Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh (center) buries his son, who was also a reporter and died in the fighting in Gaza. Photo: Reuters
A video posted on a YouTube channel affiliated with Al Jazeera shows journalist Wael Dahdouh weeping as he sits next to his son’s body. After burying his son, he said in a televised speech that journalists in Gaza would continue to do their work.
“The whole world needs to see what is happening here,” he said. “Hamza is everything to me… he is the soul of my soul… these are tears of separation and loss.”
Wael Dahdouh, 53, is a prominent Al Jazeera journalist who has covered this war and previous clashes for millions of Arabic-speaking viewers across the region. He is almost always seen on television wearing a blue helmet and bulletproof vest.
Journalist Wael Dahdouh reports live on Al Jazeera's broadcast on January 8. Photo: AJ
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling through the Middle East this week, said he was “deeply, deeply sorry” for the tragic incident. Journalist Wael Dahdouh also lost his wife, two other children and a grandson earlier in the fighting in Gaza.
When Dahdouh returned to the air, several journalists took to social media to praise his courage. “Wael Dahdouh is back on air. I have no words to describe this man,” wrote Barry Malone, deputy editor of Thompson Reuters.
Al Jazeera had earlier condemned the killing of Al-Dahdouh and Thuraya’s son, calling it a deliberate attack. “We call on the International Criminal Court, governments, human rights organizations and the United Nations to hold Israel accountable…”, the news network said in a statement.
Mai Anh (according to Al Jazeera, Reuters)
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