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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?”

SHARJAH: The world is facing its worst humanitarian crises with the least funding on record, UNHCR Communications Officer Khaled Kabbara warned on Wednesday, revealing that only 23 percent of the agency’s $10 billion appeal has been met this year.

Kabbara told Arab News that 11 million people had lost access to essential services and assistance due to the shortage of funding for aid agencies such as UNHCR. 

“We are only able to respond to either the needs of 23 percent of the people who are in urgent need of support, or to the 23 percent of the needs of these people. It is a situation that we have to endure, but we also command the courage of our colleagues,” he said.

“Unfortunately UNHCR in 2024 alone responded to over 43 emergencies in 27 countries, and hope is one of the most important things that we can try to highlight through our work.  

“Hope is one of the most important elements that really restores people’s faith in humanity, but also enables them to be inspired to continue their resilience and achieve greater and achieve a better world,” he said. 

Speaking at the International Government Communication Forum 2025 in Sharjah, Kabbara urged the audience not to underestimate the impact of their involvement, no matter how small.   

“It definitely adds up to the general efforts we run globally,” he said.

“Behind every number lies a person,” Kabbara said. “There is a story of a family who had to leave everything overnight and seek refuge in order to protect their loved ones.”

Kabbara was joined by Issa Al-Habib, a content creator, Jennifer Greco, account director at Adyen, and Maywand Jabarkhyl, CEO of the Fatima Bint Mohamed bin Zayed Initiative, at a panel discussion titled “Quality of Life for Refugees Starts with an Idea and a Mission.” 

Greco explained how Adyen, a payment service provider company, is working to develop a form of donation that is sustainable and makes it easy for customers to donate to refugees. 

“It’s about lowering the barrier for private companies so they can support refugees without the operational burden,” he said, adding that so far Adyen had collected $25 million globally and was committed to $100 million by 2030. 

Al-Habib, a content creator who partnered with the UNHCR in Ramadan, commended their Zakat program and said that it allowed him to directly support refugees in need.

“The app calculated my Zakat and showed me how to allocate it. It was so easy, and I knew exactly who I was helping,” he said. 

The UNHCR Refugee Zakat Fund App was officially launched in 2021. The platform was developed to facilitate Zakat and Sadaqah donations worldwide.