Latest news with #HamzaDahdouh
CTV News
4 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
The 184 Palestinian journalists killed in the war in Gaza endured hunger and grief
Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh holds the hand of his son, Hamza, who also worked for Al Jazeera and was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jan. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File) Since the war began in Gaza, 184 Palestinian journalists have been killed, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. They include men and women, freelancers and staffers, veterans with years in the field and young reporters on some of their first assignments. Some were killed with their families at home, others were in vehicles marked 'PRESS,' or in tents near hospitals, or out covering the violence. Many endured the same conditions as those they covered — hunger, displacement, and grief. Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh holds the hand of his son Hamza, who also worked for Al Jazeera and who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. Dahdouh lost his wife, two other children, and a grandson earlier in the war and was nearly killed himself. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali) (Hatem Ali/AP) Among them: —Ayat Khadoura, 27. The Al Quds University graduate shed light on the hardships families faced in the first weeks of the war. She became known for reporting on bombs striking her northern Gaza neighborhood, including one video in which she said Israeli forces had ordered residents to evacuate moments before a strike hit her home and killed her in November 2023. — Hamza Dahdouh, 27. The son of Al Jazeera's Gaza City bureau chief, he was killed in a January 2024 drone strike after leaving a reporting assignment at the site of an earlier strike in southern Gaza. He was the fifth member of his family to be killed. —Fatima Hassouna, 25. The photojournalist was killed in an April 2025 Israeli airstrike a day after a documentary about her efforts to film daily life amid war in Gaza was accepted at a Cannes Film Festival program promoting independent films. — Hossam Shabat, 23. A freelancer from northern Gaza, he was killed while reporting for Al Jazeera in March 2025. Before the war, he told a Beirut-based advocacy group he hoped to start a media company or work in his family's restaurants. — Anas al-Sharif, 28. The father of two was killed in an Israeli strike on a tent outside Shifa hospital on Sunday, days after he wept on air while reporting on starvation deaths in Gaza. The strike — which also killed five other journalists — prompted an outpouring of condemnation from press freedom groups and foreign officials. Israel Palestinians Protesters chant anti Israel slogans and carry posters with pictures of Palestinian journalists Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qreiqeh that Israel's military targeted and killed with an airstrike late Sunday in Gaza, during a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) (Nasser Nasser/AP) Israel has accused some of the journalists killed of involvement with militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad — charges that journalists and their outlets have dismissed as baseless. Israel's military did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment about the CPJ data. Figures and methodologies may differ among groups that track journalist deaths. CPJ said it 'independently investigates and verifies the circumstances behind each death,' including to verify journalists' lack of involvement in militant activities. Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh mourns his son Hamza Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh mourns his son Hamza, who also worked for Al Jazeera and who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. Dahdouh lost his wife, two other children and a grandson earlier in the war and was nearly killed himself. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali) (Hatem Ali/AP) __ Sam Metz in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed reporting. The Associated Press
The Hill
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
The 184 Palestinian journalists killed in the war in Gaza endured hunger and grief
Since the war began in Gaza, 184 Palestinian journalists have been killed, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. They include men and women, freelancers and staffers, veterans with years in the field and young reporters on some of their first assignments. Some were killed with their families at home, others were in vehicles marked 'PRESS,' or in tents near hospitals, or out covering the violence. Many endured the same conditions as those they covered — hunger, displacement, and grief. Among them: —Ayat Khadoura, 27. The Al Quds University graduate shed light on the hardships families faced in the first weeks of the war. She became known for reporting on bombs striking her northern Gaza neighborhood, including one video in which she said Israeli forces had ordered residents to evacuate moments before a strike hit her home and killed her in November 2023. — Hamza Dahdouh, 27. The son of Al Jazeera's Gaza City bureau chief, he was killed in a January 2024 drone strike after leaving a reporting assignment at the site of an earlier strike in southern Gaza. He was the fifth member of his family to be killed. —Fatima Hassouna, 25. The photojournalist was killed in an April 2025 Israeli airstrike a day after a documentary about her efforts to film daily life amid war in Gaza was accepted at a Cannes Film Festival program promoting independent films. — Hossam Shabat, 23. A freelancer from northern Gaza, he was killed while reporting for Al Jazeera in March 2025. Before the war, he told a Beirut-based advocacy group he hoped to start a media company or work in his family's restaurants. — Anas al-Sharif, 28. The father of two was killed in an Israeli strike on a tent outside Shifa hospital on Sunday, days after he wept on air while reporting on starvation deaths in Gaza. The strike — which also killed five other journalists — prompted an outpouring of condemnation from press freedom groups and foreign officials. Israel has accused some of the journalists killed of involvement with militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad — charges that journalists and their outlets have dismissed as baseless. Israel's military did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment about the CPJ data. Figures and methodologies may differ among groups that track journalist deaths. CPJ said it 'independently investigates and verifies the circumstances behind each death,' including to verify journalists' lack of involvement in militant activities. __ Sam Metz in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed reporting.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
The 184 Palestinian journalists killed in the war in Gaza endured hunger and grief
Since the war began in Gaza, 184 Palestinian journalists have been killed, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. They include men and women, freelancers and staffers, veterans with years in the field and young reporters on some of their first assignments. Some were killed with their families at home, others were in vehicles marked 'PRESS,' or in tents near hospitals, or out covering the violence. Many endured the same conditions as those they covered — hunger, displacement, and grief. Among them: —Ayat Khadoura, 27. The Al Quds University graduate shed light on the hardships families faced in the first weeks of the war. She became known for reporting on bombs striking her northern Gaza neighborhood, including one video in which she said Israeli forces had ordered residents to evacuate moments before a strike hit her home and killed her in November 2023. — Hamza Dahdouh, 27. The son of Al Jazeera's Gaza City bureau chief, he was killed in a January 2024 drone strike after leaving a reporting assignment at the site of an earlier strike in southern Gaza. He was the fifth member of his family to be killed. —Fatima Hassouna, 25. The photojournalist was killed in an April 2025 Israeli airstrike a day after a documentary about her efforts to film daily life amid war in Gaza was accepted at a Cannes Film Festival program promoting independent films. — Hossam Shabat, 23. A freelancer from northern Gaza, he was killed while reporting for Al Jazeera in March 2025. Before the war, he told a Beirut-based advocacy group he hoped to start a media company or work in his family's restaurants. — Anas al-Sharif, 28. The father of two was killed in an Israeli strike on a tent outside Shifa hospital on Sunday, days after he wept on air while reporting on starvation deaths in Gaza. The strike — which also killed five other journalists — prompted an outpouring of condemnation from press freedom groups and foreign officials. Israel has accused some of the journalists killed of involvement with militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad — charges that journalists and their outlets have dismissed as baseless. Israel's military did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment about the CPJ data. Figures and methodologies may differ among groups that track journalist deaths. CPJ said it 'independently investigates and verifies the circumstances behind each death,' including to verify journalists' lack of involvement in militant activities. __ Sam Metz in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed reporting.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Hide the pain: how a war reporter keeps going when their own family are victims
Purpose was never something Wael al-Dahdouh struggled with. Even when struck by personal tragedies, the Palestinian journalist would take his place in front of Al Jazeera's cameras to report the news from Gaza. He returned to work almost immediately after his wife, two of his children and his toddler grandson were killed by an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. He showed the same determination seven weeks later when he was himself injured, and his friend and colleague Samer Abu Daqqa killed, as they reported on the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a school. He again was back at work immediately after the funeral of his eldest son, Hamza, a cameraman killed in a targeted Israeli strike on a car carrying a group of reporters in January 2024. But his family persuaded him to leave Gaza that same month, and though Dahdouh gives interviews and travels the world to speak about the war there, he still struggles with the fact that he is no longer reporting alongside colleagues who have persisted through danger and hunger. 'It was as if I had been poisoned when I left the Gaza Strip,' he says. 'I can't exaggerate to say often it is more difficult than when I was inside, and this deepens every time I see a disaster in Gaza that affects the journalists, the people, my relatives.' Dahdouh adds: 'At least when I was in Gaza I felt like I could do something valuable, to report on the people's suffering, about the massacres they faced, about their stresses, their problems.' Now separated from his microphone and camera, Dahdouh – who still wears a brace on his injured arm – focuses on his own recovery and that of his surviving family who were able to get out of Gaza. He says he finds the only limited way he can reprise some of the purpose he felt as a journalist is to speak to international audiences, as he did last week at the Amnesty Media Awards, calling for solidarity with Gaza's journalists as he picked up the prize for outstanding contribution to human rights journalism. At least 225 Palestinian journalists and media workers are known to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israeli onslaught, according to the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, and many of the most experienced have had to leave because of the danger they faced. This has meant respected and well-known faces such as Dahdouh, who covered every war in Gaza since 2005, have been replaced by younger, less experienced journalists who are having to learn their craft while living in tents, under the threat of death and often while hungry. He says the new generation of media reports in Gaza combine traditional skills with citizen journalism, with social media accounts often posting information from areas reporters cannot reach because of the danger they face. Dahdouh has no doubt that the Israeli military has journalists in its sights and that his own family were targeted because of his work, but he believes those reporting from Gaza will continue working because the circumstances force them to continue. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion 'Honestly, I took my strength from God. That's how I was able to bear the pain of what I saw with my eyes and what I experienced in my heart, to overcome it, to hide the pain to return to work as if nothing had happened,' says Dahdouh. 'People do not have options. Even when you want to get rid of these people, where do you go? To a hospital, to a camp, to a street, to a house, or whatever is left of houses? 'There is no safe place. Your back is against the wall so all you can do is continue. The cost [of being a journalist] is high and everyone pays the price, but you must continue.' Last week, more than 140 media rights groups and news organisations joined the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters without Borders demanding of Israel that it allow foreign journalists into Gaza and calling the killing, displacement and threats against Palestinian journalists 'a direct attack on press freedom and the right to information'. Dahdouh says journalist colleagues in safer regions have a duty to support those in Gaza by speaking out for them, raising awareness about the killing of journalists and putting pressure on Israel to protect members of the media. 'I used to wish that Hamza's blood would be the last of the blood of journalists and civilians, but after these long months, there is a lot of blood flowing from the journalists and the civilians,' says Dahdouh. 'I want to see the journalists' colleagues from all over the world using their conscience, morals and international law to do what they can for their colleagues and brothers in the Gaza Strip. At least then we can feel that we were not abandoned and the world did not silence our murder.'
Al Jazeera
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israel's war on Gaza deadliest conflict ever for journalists, says report
Israel's war on Gaza has killed 232 journalists – an average of 13 per week – making it the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded, according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs' Costs of War project. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia and the United States war in Afghanistan combined, the report published on Tuesday found. 'It is, quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters,' said the Costs of War. The report said it was unclear how many Palestinian journalists in Gaza have been specifically targeted by Israeli attacks and 'how many were simply the victims, like tens of thousands of fellow civilians, of Israel's bombardment'. However, it cites the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as documenting 35 cases where Israel's military likely targeted and killed journalists because of their work by the end of 2024. Among them was Al Jazeera reporter Hamza Dahdouh, who was killed on January 7, 2024 when a missile struck the vehicle he was travelling in in southern Gaza. He was the fifth immediate family member of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, to be killed by Israeli attacks. A more recent case is Al Jazeera reporter Hossam Shabat, killed on March 24 when an Israeli strike hit his car. Israel's military accused Shabat of being a secret Hamas operative, a claim the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Israel has repeatedly levied against Palestinian journalists without evidence to justify their killing or mistreatment. The attacks on journalists in Gaza, where nearly no foreign correspondents have been granted access, have intensified a trend where local reporters – often underpaid and underresourced – face the greatest risks, according to the Costs of War project. 'Across the globe, the economics of the industry, the violence of war, and coordinated censorship campaigns are turning more conflict zones into news graveyards, with Gaza being the most extreme example,' the report said.
