Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa had been with Dahdouh on Friday when the pair traveled to cowl Israel’s bombing of Farhana college in Khan Younis, which had been internet hosting displaced Palestinians.
However after they arrived, they had been hit by a drone strike, in accordance with Al Jazeera. Dahdouh managed to go away the realm because the bombardment continued, however Abu Daqqa couldn’t and desperately tried to crawl to security.
Ambulances tried to succeed in the realm, however the route was blocked by the rubble, and paramedics couldn’t get there as a result of bombing. The community reported that three civil protection staff died whereas attempting to succeed in him over a interval of 5 hours.
“Samer continued to bleed for a number of hours, till the Civil Protection crew discovered him lifeless,” Al Jazeera English stated in an inner observe Friday. Abu Daqqa, 45, was a father of 4 and resident of Khan Younis, town he died masking.
The battle has taken a crushing toll on Gaza’s journalists. Earlier than with 56 killed because the starting of Israel’s assault on Hamas in October, in accordance with Reporters With out Borders. Some 13 of these have been killed whereas at work, whereas the others had been killed of their properties or going about their every day lives.
Al Jazeera stated that it “holds Israel accountable for systematically concentrating on and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their households” and urged the worldwide group to carry Israel accountable.
Abu Daqqa is the primary Al Jazeera journalist to die within 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 by which they had been sheltering. His 1½-year-old grandson was additionally killed. He discovered concerning the bombing whereas reside on air.
“It is a bloodbath for journalism and journalists engaged on the bottom,” Suruq As’advert, a spokeswoman of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate based mostly in West Financial institution. “They’re all locals. They’re focused and their environment are focused: family members, their neighborhoods, their cities, their pals, their places of work and so they go on to do their jobs as reporters, as digicam folks, as correspondents.”
She stated that the Al Jazeera crew was clearly marked as press after they traveled to cowl the bombing on the college, with markings on their automobile and security gear, accusing Israel of battle crimes. The Israeli navy didn’t reply to a request for a remark.
The International Press Affiliation in Jerusalem stated that Abu Daqqa was it first member to be killed throughout the battle, describing him as a “veteran cameraman.”
“We think about this a grave blow to the already restricted freedom of the press in Gaza and name on the military for a immediate investigation and rationalization,” it stated. “The FPA repeatedly appealed to the Israeli navy, which stated it had permitted a bulldozer to clear the street for an ambulance to succeed in Samer, however it seems it took hours for first responders to achieve entry.”
Loay Ayyoub, a photographer who works with The Washington Publish, stated he’d change into near Abu Daqqa throughout the battle, as they frolicked collectively at al-Nasser hospital, the place the injured and the lifeless are endlessly ferried in.
Nonetheless, Abu Daqqa at all times managed to smile, he stated. “Everybody beloved him. On the finish of every work day, we’d sit till the daybreak hours and chat.”
He’d managed to get his household out of Gaza, Ayyoub stated. “He at all times instructed me, ‘There’s a safer place exterior Gaza,’ ” he stated.
In an interview this week, Dahdouh, famend for his relentless protection of the battle within the face of non-public tragedy, recounted his hardest second as a reporter.
“When a journalist turns into the information as a substitute of reporting it,” he instructed the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, strapped into his blue press flak jacket as he referred to the devastating deaths of his members of the family. “And as a substitute of getting the picture and broadcasting it, he turns into the picture.”
Lower 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 contributed to this report.