Family of Al Jazeera journalist killed in Gaza strike

AFP | Doha

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The family of an Al Jazeera journalist have been killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza, the Qatar-based network said in a statement on Wednesday as war rages between Israel and Hamas.

Al Jazeera said the wife and two children of its Arabic-language channel’s Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza strip.

“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,” it said.

“The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of his wife, son and daughter, while the rest of his family is buried under the rubble.”

In images and footage run by Al Jazeera and shared on social media, Al-Dahdouh was shown mourning over the bodies of his wife and children at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Al Jazeera said the family were staying in a temporary home after evacuating Gaza City following Israel’s warning for residents to move south as its forces intensified strikes targeting Hamas.

“This is the safe zone the occupation (Israeli) army was talking about,” Al-Dahdouh said on Al Jazeera. The media organisation said “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.”

“Al Jazeera is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of our colleagues in Gaza and hold the Israeli authorities responsible for their security,” it added.