“My duty.” Journalist who lost family in Gaza returns to work

Wael al-Dahdouh, the Al Jazeera journalist who lost his family during an Israeli attack on Gaza last Tuesday, has already returned to work as he considers it his “duty, despite the pain and the open wound”.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza was working in the Yarmouk neighborhood when he learned that an Israeli attack had hit the area where the family was sheltering, in Nuseirat, in the center of the enclave. His wife, son, daughter and grandson died.

“I felt it was my duty, despite the pain and the open wound, to get back in front of the camera and communicate with you through social media as quickly as possible”he explained, quoted by The Guardian newspaper.

“As you can see, the shooting continues everywhere. There are air strikes and artillery shelling, and things continue to evolve,” he added.

🇵🇸🇮🇱 Despite the fact that Al Jazeera reporter Wael Al-Dahdouh’s WHOLE FAMILY was murdered by an Israeli air strike — he is continuing to report on the TRUTH of ISRAELI TERRORISM.

Follow @stairwayto3dom (source)
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— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) October 26, 2023

Speaking to Al Jazeera on the day of the attack, Wael Dahdouh explained that the family was attacked in the south of the Gaza Strip, where they traveled following Israel’s order to evacuate the north of the enclave.

“What happened is clear; it is part of the ongoing attack on women and children in Gaza. I was just reporting on the Israeli attacks that hit the Nuseirat area,” he said.

“We knew that the Israeli occupation would not leave us without punishing us. They are taking revenge on the children. But our tears are human, not out of cowardice”he added.

This morning, Israeli forces intensified ground operations in the Gaza Strip in parallel with the bombing of the enclave that has continued since October 7, following the attack by the Islamist movement Hamas on southern Israel, and warned that they consider Gaza a “battlefield “, recommending that civilians leave the territory.

Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 7,300 deaths and around 19,000 injuries have been recorded in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians, of which more than 3,000 are children.

Read Also: “I buried them together”. The report of the journalist who lost his family in Gaza