Two Al Jazeera Arabic journalists have been wounded whereas protecting an Israeli assault on a college in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Wael Dahdouh, Gaza bureau chief for Al Jazeera Arabic, and cameraperson Samer Abudaqa had been protecting an earlier air strike at Farhana faculty in Khan Younis after they had been wounded on Friday by shrapnel from an Israeli missile assault.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his higher arm, and was transferred to Nasser Hospital with minor accidents.
Abudaqa sustained shrapnel accidents and remained close to the scene of the incident, which paramedics had been unable to achieve attributable to Israeli hearth, in line with Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum. Abudaqa’s situation was not instantly clear.
Witnesses mentioned there was heavy shelling within the space across the faculty.
“The ambulance finds it very difficult to get to him,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Rafah.
Many Palestinians from the central and northern elements of Gaza have sought shelter in Khan Younis for the reason that warfare started in October. Many have now been pushed additional south in direction of the strip’s southernmost metropolis of Rafah after Israel intensified its navy operations in Khan Younis.
The assault comes amid violent clashes between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli military in places throughout Gaza. Residents reported combating in Shejaya, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah, and Beit Hanoun in north Gaza, east of Maghazi in central Gaza and within the centre and northern fringes of Khan Younis, in line with the Reuters information service.
In late October, Wael Dahdouh lost four of his family members in an Israeli air raid.
His household had been searching for refuge in Nuseirat camp within the centre of Gaza when their house was bombed by Israeli forces, killing his spouse, Um Hamza, his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, his seven-year-old daughter, Sham, and his grandson, Adam, who died in hospital hours later.
“Despite all the difficulties, despite the death of his family, he rebounded within minutes to do his job again. And now, Wael is the victim,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.
The Worldwide Federation of Journalists (IFJ) mentioned it was “shocked” on the assault.
“We condemn the attack and reiterate our demand that journalists’ lives must be safeguarded,” it mentioned in a put up on X.
An IFJ report printed final week discovered that 72 % of journalists who died on the job this 12 months had been killed within the Gaza warfare.
#Palestine🇵🇸: We’re deeply shocked to study that journalist @WaelDahdouh and digicam operator Samer Abu Daqqa have been injured whereas protecting an earlier Israeli assault on a college. We condemn the assault and reiterate our demand that journalists’ lives should be safeguarded. https://t.co/mjJvgEXJ3z
— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) December 15, 2023
‘A professional, strong team’
The 2 journalists have labored along with Al Jazeera Arabic since earlier than the warfare.
“[Samer] and Wael make up a very professional, strong team on the ground, documenting everything and bringing all the facts and live pictures of what the Palestinian people have been going through,” Hani Mahmoud mentioned.
“But particularly with this war, given its intensity in scale and magnitude and the sheer amount of destruction, they have been at the forefront of covering every little detail that one might have forgotten about,” he added.
Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the Committee to Defend Journalists, mentioned Palestinian journalists in Gaza felt deserted by the worldwide group.
“The role of journalists in such a situation is absolutely vital – particularly in Gaza where we’ve seen the kinds of institutions that traditionally also help with the kinds of documentation about the impact, like the UN officials, have left – so we’re really only left with the Gazan journalists doing this very important documentation work,” she advised Al Jazeera.
“The international governments’ failure to push for an end to this conflict is increasingly creating a real sense of abandonment amongst the community and particularly amongst the journalist community in Palestine and the region,” Ginsberg mentioned.
