Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria died after two rockets were fired at car they were travelling in, witnesses say
Al Jazeera has accused Israel of the targeted killing of two of its journalists in Gaza as the head of the advocacy group Reporters without Borders decried a “never-ending slaughter” in the territory that had killed 79 journalists in the span of three months.
Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were killed while on assignment for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based media network said in a statement.
A third freelancer, Hazem Rajab, was wounded. The health ministry in Gaza confirmed the deaths and blamed an Israeli strike.
Dahdouh was the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, whose wife, two other children and a grandson were killed by a previous Israeli strike in October.
Soon after news broke of his son’s death, Dahdouh, who has been the face of Al Jazeera’s 24-hour coverage of this war, was again live on the air. “The whole world must look at what is happening here in the Gaza Strip,” he said on Al Jazeera. “What is happening is a great injustice to defenceless people, civilian people. It is also unfair for us as journalists.”
His determination to continue reporting, even as the war takes a devastating personal toll, has turned him into a symbol of the perils faced by Palestinian journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday said journalists in Gaza were bearing particularly high risks as they scrambled to report the impact of the war.
“Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats,” said Sherif Mansour of the organisation in a statement. “Many have lost colleagues, families, and media facilities, and have fled seeking safety when there is no safe haven or exit.”
To date, the conflict has claimed the lives of 79 journalists, said Christophe Deloire of Reporters Without Borders.
