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Al Jazeera is grieving.
The Qatari-funded news network said Wednesday that an Israeli air strike had killed the family of its Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh — a devastating reality that Dahdouh learned on-air while reporting on the Israel-Hamas war.
“The Al Jazeera Media Network extends its sincere condolences and sympathy to our colleague Wael Al-Dahdouh on the loss of his family in an Israeli airstrike,” the channel said in a statement, adding that it is “deeply concerned about the safety, and well-being of our colleagues in Gaza and hold the Israeli authorities responsible for their security.”
It has been exceptionally challenging for news organizations to obtain accurate, real-time information during the conflict in the Gaza Strip and CNN could not independently confirm the cause of the blast. But a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces told CNN Wednesday night, “Regarding this specific case, the IDF targeted Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the area.”
Regardless of the cause, the deaths of Dahdouh’s wife, daughter, son, and grandson underscore the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as innocent civilians find themselves caught in the middle of a brutal war between Israel and Hamas. Like many others, Dahdouh’s family was reportedly sheltering in a refugee camp when a blast reduced a house on the property to rubble.
The distraught look on Dahdouh’s face as he walked into the morgue on Wednesday to view the bodies of his family — a heart-wrenching moment broadcast by Al Jazeera to the world — was reflective of what scores of Gaza residents have been going through as Israel carries out air strikes in retaliation for Hamas’ savage attack on the Jewish state earlier this month. Thousands of people living in Gaza have lost their lives since the onset of the war, according to the Hamas-controlled health authorities.
Dahdouh, overcome with emotion, was seen kneeling before the body of his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, who Al Jazeera reported had hoped to grow up to become a journalist like his father. Additional footage showed the shattered father holding the body of his seven-year-old daughter.
Dahdouh’s visible pain, and unimaginable grief, offered the world a glimpse of the horrors taking place each day in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict. While some Western news organizations do have producers and freelancers in Gaza, there are no U.S. anchors or correspondents on the ground inside the narrow and densely populated strip that millions call home. As a result, global audiences most often see sanitized video of the air strikes from afar, not the immense human suffering that those strikes give way to. CNN has two stringers filing daily video which we are airing in PKGs by Clarissa Ward, Salma Abdelaziz and others
Al Jazeera correspondent Youmna Elsayed, described Dahdouh as a “big brother” type figure in the bureau, stressing too that he was committed to staying in the region and reporting on the war.
“He didn’t leave Gaza City,” Elsayed said. “He stayed despite all the threats and warnings and didn’t stop for 19 days in a row. He said, ‘I must be here in Gaza City to report about these people who are getting bombed every day.’”
“He didn’t give up on them,” Elsayed added. “He didn’t want to leave.”
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