Palestinian Wael al Dahduh has been the face of journalism during the first 100 days of the Gaza war. Last week, the head of Al Jazira’s bureau in the strip lost his son, Hamza, who also worked for the Qatari television channel. Israel killed him in a missile attack against the vehicle in which he was traveling with another journalist, Mustafa Thuraya, a collaborator of the network and also deceased. The Israeli army argued that the journalists were flying a drone and this caused them to be mistaken for Hamas fighters. Al Dahduh, who had already lost his wife, another son, a daughter and a grandson in another Israeli attack in October and was wounded in December, was back in front of the camera within a few hours. But yesterday he finally sought refuge in Egypt, where he is treating his wounds, AFP reported.
The 53-year-old veteran journalist works for one of the media outlets that has the most cameras in Gaza. Since Israel does not allow journalists to enter the strip except for those who are incorporated into its troops, the Doha-based news network has become one of the largest outlets covering the Israeli offensive in English from within the enclave. –has also dominated Arabic coverage, led by Al Dahduh.
With an audience in 430 million homes in 150 countries in addition to its broadcast on the Internet and social networks, the channel is a powerful speaker to the world. Its correspondents in Gaza – today it has two in English and a few more in Arabic, although the channel is running out of eyes – have shown images of the devastation of the bombings, which have killed more than 24,200 Palestinians and caused a serious situation. humanitarian aid on the Gazan people, 90% overcrowded in the south and suffering from the blockage of water, food and medicine.
Israel’s government has for decades had a tense relationship with the network owned by the ruling Qatari royal family, which it has accused of supporting Hamas both in the past and in this war. The Israeli Communications Minister asked in October for its offices in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem to close. The measure was not applied in the end, although it was applied to Al Mayadeen, the pro-Iran television channel based in Beirut. The decision was seen as a balancing act by Israel to avoid antagonizing Doha, which it is counting on to help negotiate with Hamas the release of the 132 hostages it is holding. However, other senior Israeli officials have continued to publicly support an offensive against the canal.
Pressure also comes from the United States, whose Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, asked Qatar to tone down its coverage of the war in October. “These requests are very absurd because if you are a journalist and you are not able to honestly report on the reality you see, you are not doing your job,” Youmna el Sayed, Gaza correspondent for Al Jazira in English since 2021, tells La Vanguardia.
“I cannot ignore the fact that unarmed civilians are being bombed in their homes, that thousands of displaced people taking refuge in UNHCR schools are being bombed or that people in hospitals are being attacked. Nor that I receive threats and am directly attacked for being a journalist,” adds the reporter who spent 70 days reporting from the fringes for Al Jazira and for its social networks until she also made the “difficult decision to flee” to Egypt. “I had to choose between being a journalist or being a mother.” She opted for the latter. Her four children, ages 5 to 12, are traumatized, she confesses.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 83 journalists and media workers (more than 100, according to the Gazan government) have been killed since the war began on October 7. . Among them, 76 are Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese. The organization that defends the profession in the world has repeatedly expressed its concern about the apparent direct attacks against the professionals who report in this war.
“The continued killings of journalists and their families by the Israeli military must end: journalists are civilians, not targets,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “Israel must break its pattern of impunity in cases of murdered journalists,” the NGO added in a statement. Al Jazira, which has seen three of its workers die in this war and also Shireen Abu Akleh, murdered by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank in 2022, has demanded “that legal measures be taken” against Israel.
The same Israeli attack that wounded Al Dahduh in December also hit his cameraman, Samer Abu Daqa, who bled to death despite calls from the Qatari network to the Israeli army to send an ambulance, says his colleague El Sayed.
“Israel deliberately attacks us, this is a fact and not an assumption. There is so much evidence that proves it… It knows the movements of each of the people within the strip and tracks our phones with its drones that fly through the skies non-stop,” says the Al Jazira reporter. “When I went out to cover the war, I was very afraid to put on the press vest and be identified,” adds El Sayed, whose husband received a call from the Israeli army to leave their home in Gaza City amid the bombings. . They had to move up to five times. She explains that when they evacuated to the south, her eldest daughter was terrified to make the long journey on foot because she was afraid that Israeli soldiers would identify her. She “Said to me: ‘What if they kill us all because of you?’”
