Family of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief killed in Israeli airstrike

The family members of Al Jazeera chief correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Wael Dahdouh, have been killed in an Israeli air raid.

Dahdouh was reporting from the besieged enclave, assisting in the live broadcast of images from the area when he received the news of the death of his wife, son, daughter and grandson on Wednesday.

Dahdouh is Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Gaza. Video footage aired on the channel showed Dahdouh entering the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah on Wednesday to see his dead wife, son and daughter in the morgue.

He was seen crouching and gently caressing the face of his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, who aspired to follow in his father's footsteps as a journalist, reports Al Jazeera. Another footage captured him, still in his protective press vest, holding the shrouded remains of his seven-year-old daughter, Sham.

“What happened is clear. This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians. I was just reporting from Yarmouk about such an attack, and the Israeli raids have targeted many areas, including Nuseirat”, Dahdouh told Al Jazeera on his way out of the hospital.

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“We had our doubts that the Israeli occupation would not let these people go without punishing them. And sadly, that is what happened. This is the ‘safe’ area that the occupation army spoke of.”

Dahdouh’s grandson Adam was declared dead two hours later. Some members of Dahdouh’s family, including a toddler granddaughter, survived the attack on the house they were staying in at the Nuseirat refugee camp south of Wadi Gaza.

“The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of [Dahdouh’s] wife, son and daughter, while the rest of his family is buried under the rubble,” Al Jazeera Media Network said in a statement.

“Their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighbourhood, following [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s call for all civilians to move south.”

Efforts are currently underway to rescue individuals trapped within the damaged residence.

According to Al Jazeera Arabic, Dahdouh's son, Yehia, sustained an injury that necessitated an urgent surgical intervention to stop severe bleeding from a head wound.

The procedure had to be conducted in a hospital corridor, and the medical team couldn’t find suitable instruments, ultimately resorting to non-surgical thread for suturing the wound.

“It’s heartbreaking to be reporting about Wael’s family and to see how broken he is. He calms everyone. He speaks to us like a big brother, not just a bureau chief”, said the channel’s journalist Youmna Elsayed from Gaza, as quoted b Al Jazeera.

“He didn’t leave Gaza City. 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,’ Elsayed added. “He didn’t give up on them. He didn’t want to leave.”

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