Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa had been with Dahdouh on Friday when the pair traveled to cowl Israel’s bombing of Farhana faculty in Khan Younis, which had been internet hosting displaced Palestinians.
But after they arrived, they have been hit by a drone strike, in keeping with Al Jazeera. Dahdouh managed to depart the world because the bombardment continued, however Abu Daqqa couldn’t and desperately tried to crawl to security.
Ambulances tried to achieve the world, however the route was blocked by the rubble, and paramedics couldn’t get there because of the bombing. The community reported that three civil protection employees died whereas making an attempt to achieve him over a interval of 5 hours.
“Samer continued to bleed for several hours, until the Civil Defense crew found him dead,” Al Jazeera English mentioned in an inner be aware Friday. Abu Daqqa, 45, was a father of 4 and resident of Khan Younis, town he died protecting.
The battle has taken a crushing toll on Gaza’s journalists, with 56 killed for the reason that starting of Israel’s assault on Hamas in October, in keeping with Reporters Without Borders. Some 13 of these have been killed whereas at work, whereas the others have been killed in their properties or going about their each day lives.
Al Jazeera mentioned that it “holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families” and urged the worldwide neighborhood to carry Israel accountable.
Abu Daqqa is the primary Al Jazeera journalist to die in the battle. In October, Dahdouh misplaced 14 members of prolonged household, together with his spouse, Amna, his 15-year-old son Mahmoud and his 7-year-old daughter Sham, throughout an Israeli strike on the home in which they have been sheltering. His 1½-year-old grandson was additionally killed. He discovered in regards to the bombing whereas stay on air.
“This is a massacre for journalism and journalists working on the ground,” Suruq As’advert, a spokeswoman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate based mostly in West Bank. “They are all locals. They are targeted and their surroundings are targeted: loved ones, their neighborhoods, their cities, their friends, their offices and they go on to do their jobs as reporters, as camera people, as correspondents.”
She mentioned that the Al Jazeera staff was clearly marked as press once they traveled to cowl the bombing on the faculty, with markings on their automobile and security gear, and accused Israel of battle crimes. The Israeli army didn’t reply to a request for a remark.
The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem mentioned that Abu Daqqa was its first member to be killed in the course of the battle, describing him as a “veteran cameraman.”
“We consider this a grave blow to the already limited freedom of the press in Gaza and call on the army for a prompt investigation and explanation,” it mentioned. “The FPA repeatedly appealed to the Israeli military, which said it had approved a bulldozer to clear the road for an ambulance to reach Samer, but it appears it took hours for first responders to gain access.”
Loay Ayyoub, a photographer who works with The Washington Post, mentioned he’d turn into near Abu Daqqa in the course of the battle, as they frolicked collectively at Nasser hospital, the place the injured and the useless are endlessly ferried in.
Still, Abu Daqqa at all times managed to smile, he mentioned. “Everyone loved him. At the end of each work day, we’d sit until the dawn hours and chat.”
He’d managed to get his household out of Gaza, Ayyoub mentioned. “He always told me, ‘There is a safer place outside Gaza,’” he mentioned.
In an interview this week, Dahdouh, famend for his relentless protection of the battle in the face of private tragedy, recounted his hardest second as a reporter.
“When a journalist becomes the news instead of reporting it,” he advised the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, strapped into his blue press flak jacket as he referred to the devastating deaths of his relations. “And instead of getting the image and broadcasting it, he becomes the image.”
Less than 24 hours after he posted a clip of the interview on his Instagram feed, Dahdouh was a part of the story once more.
And the identical press vest was stained with blood.
Hazem Balousha in Amman, Miriam Berger in Jerusalem and Niha Masih in Seoul contributed to this report.
