https://arab.news/mew7p
- Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief lost his wife, 3 children and grandchild in airstrikes
- Lack of media coverage ‘more painful than being at the receiving end of missiles and bullets’
LONDON: A journalist who runs Al Jazeera’s bureau in Gaza has accused the international community of treating the victims of Israel’s war with indifference, amid the ongoing tragedy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In an interview with Sky News, Wael Al-Dahdouh reflected on his personal loss.
“Why should I lose my wife, my lifelong friend and partner, my son, my daughter?” he said.
Al-Dahdouh’s wife Amna, 15-year-old son Mahmoud, 7-year-old daughter Sham and grandchild Adam were killed during an airstrike on the Nuseirat camp in October, where they had sought refuge after being displaced from their homes.
He learned of their deaths while live on air, in a moment that became emblematic of the war’s personal and professional toll. Weeks later, his eldest son Hamza was killed in a separate Israeli strike in southern Gaza in January 2024.
Hamza was working as a reporter at the time. Mahmoud had also hoped one day to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a journalist.
Al-Dahdouh said he was disillusioned by the lack of media coverage the war was getting around the world.
“Why do they treat us with such indifference? Is it because of the color of our skin? Or the color of our eyes? Aren’t we all created equal after all?” he said.
The journalist, who was speaking from Qatar, where he was taken after being injured in a separate airstrike, has voiced strong criticism of Israel’s military campaign and accused it of engaging in a genocidal campaign.
He also highlighted the difficulty of reporting from within Gaza. Israel prevents foreign media from entering Gaza, leaving local journalists to cover the war and endure its impact.
“It wasn’t enough, it wasn’t as objective as we thought it should have been, the lack of adherence to norms and standards of journalism,” Al-Dahdouh said.
“That feeling sometimes was even more painful than being at the receiving end of missiles and bullets.”
The local journalists felt, “as though we are being left alone,” he said.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, nearly 200 journalists and media workers — almost all Palestinian —have been killed in the conflict. Other organizations have said the death toll could be as high as 270.
Rights groups and the international community have repeatedly accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists to prevent news reports from getting out of Gaza. Some have said its actions could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israeli officials have justified the killing of reporters, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif and five colleagues, by claiming they were Hamas operatives.
Al-Dahdouh said the Israeli military had accused him and his colleagues of involvement with militant activities, which he described as “false and misleading attempts to justify the killing of our colleagues” and to avoid accountability.
Without local journalists, “nobody would have known about the genocide and the tragedies that have been going on,” he said.
He warned that the world must not assume the horrors unfolding in Gaza are distant or irrelevant.
“If nobody does anything, those who perpetrate these crimes will encourage others elsewhere to do the same and one day the fire will reach you in your own homes and houses,” he said.
“By then, what can we do? It might be too late. We may not survive as a nation but what are you going to do?”