Calay News
On Sunday, Al Jazeera TV network reported the tragic loss of two of its Palestinian journalists in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip.
Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a reporter for the Qatari channel, and his colleague Mustafa Thuria, an independent cameraman who also worked for AFP, lost their lives while traveling in a vehicle in southern Gaza to “carry out their work,” Al Jazeera stated.
The Israeli military informed AFP that they had “eliminated a terrorist operating an aircraft posing a threat” to their soldiers and acknowledged awareness that, during the attack, two other suspects in the same vehicle as the terrorists were also hit.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, under Hamas control, confirmed the journalists’ deaths.
Al Jazeera vehemently condemned the “attack this morning by Israeli occupation forces against the vehicle of Palestinian journalists” after filming the bombing of a house in Rafah, southern Gaza.
Hamza’s father, Wael al Dahdouh, the chief editor of Al Jazeera’s Gaza office, had already lost his wife and two other children in an Israeli attack in the early weeks of the conflict.
Expressing his grief, Dahdouh said, “I hope that the blood of my son Hamza is the last shed for journalists and the people of the Gaza Strip.” He was seen embracing his son’s body in a hospital.
Mustafa Thuria, around 30 years old, had been working as an independent for Agence France-Presse since 2019, collaborating with other media outlets, including AP, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and CNN, according to his AFP colleagues.
AFP’s Director of Information, Phil Chetwynd, stated that the agency was “shocked” by Mustafa’s death and strongly condemned attacks on journalists, emphasizing the need for a clear explanation of the incident.
Christophe Deloire, the Secretary-General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), condemned the incident, saying, “Apparently, an Israeli attack hit his car. It is definitely an endless killing.”
The war erupted following Hamas’s bloody attack on October 7, which resulted in around 1,140 deaths in Israel, according to AFP records based on Israeli authorities’ figures. In response, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza, causing at least 22,835 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Hamas’s Health Ministry.
Between October 7 and December 31, at least 79 journalists and media workers, predominantly Palestinians, lost their lives, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists based in New York.
