Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief back at work hours after his family killed in Israeli airstrike

Speaking in Arabic, Al Dahdouh said that he saw it as his duty to get back to work, regardless of the situation. In the video message recorded from a rooftop with Gaza City in the backdrop, smoke is seen rising from the ground behind him as sirens went off.

Clad in a ‘PRESS’ jacket and helmet, Al Dahdouh said that the ground is still on fire and Gazans are still being hit and bombed by airstrikes and cannons. There are many developments happening to the situation, he said.

I saw that regardless of my pain and my bleeding wound,  I should get back quickly to work and show myself on camera to everyone on social media, he added.

Al Dahdouh’s wife, a daughter, a grandson and a 15-year-old son were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday. The family had followed Israel’s advisory asking Gazans to move from the northern part of the besieged strip to the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the southern part where the Israeli military had encouraged people to go to stay safe, as per Al Jazeera reports.

The journalist learned about their deaths while helping broadcast live images. Footage of Al Dahdouh entering the al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza to identify the bodies was shared widely, prompting outrage and grief across the world.

In the video, he is seen cradling his daughter’s body wrapped in a white bedsheet and later peering over the body of his dead son. “They take revenge on us in our children?” he said, as he kneeled over his son’s bloodied body, still wearing his protective press vest from that day’s work. Dahdouh’s grandson also was declared dead two hours later, the Qatari-based news network reported.

Late Wednesday, Al Jazeera replayed the moment Al Dahdouh was informed about the deaths. In an audio recording, he is heard picking up a phone and telling a frantic caller multiple times: “Who are you with?” Earlier, Dahdouh was on air, covering the aftermath of a separate strike that had killed at least 26 people, according to local officials.

The current Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 7,000 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis, as per respective official counts. Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip continuously since October 7 following a devastating Hamas attack in which the Palestinian militanat group killed and injured scores of Israelis and took more than 220 soldiers and civilians as hostages.

(With inputs from the Associated Press)

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