Tel Aviv Tribune Arab journalist Samer Abudaqa was killed and his colleague Wael Dahdouh was injured in an Israeli attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Cameraman Abudaqa and correspondent Dahdouh were reporting from the Farhana school in Khan Younis when they were hit by an Israeli strike on Friday.
Rescue teams were unable to immediately reach Abudaqa and others at the site due to Israeli bombardment.
“Rescuers managed to recover the body of cameraman Samer Abudaqa,” a media spokesperson said.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel in the arm and managed to reach Nasser Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.
Witnesses earlier said there had been heavy shelling in the area surrounding the school.
Wael Dahdouh affirms that the network team accompanied civil protection rescuers as part of a mission to evacuate a family after the bombing of their house.
“We captured the devastating destruction and reached places that had not been reached by any camera lens since the beginning of the Israeli ground operation,” Dahdouh said from his hospital bed.
As Tel Aviv Tribune journalists walked home because the areas were not accessible by car, Dahdouh said “something big” happened and knocked him to the ground.
After the explosion, Dahdouh said he dressed his wounds and left the area to get help, but by the time he reached an ambulance, doctors said they could not. not return to the scene of the attack because it was too dangerous.
Subsequent efforts to coordinate safe passage to send rescuers to Abudaqa were delayed, Dahdouh said, adding that an ambulance trying to reach the cameraman came under fire.
Many Palestinians from central and northern Gaza have sought refuge in Khan Younis since the war began in October. Many have now been pushed further south towards Rafah, the southernmost town in the Gaza Strip, after Israel intensified its military operations in Khan Younis.
The attack comes amid violent clashes between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli army in several locations in Gaza. Residents reported fighting in Shujayea, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah and Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, east of Maghazi in central Gaza and in the center and northern outskirts of Khan Younis, according to the security service. Reuters information.
The Tel Aviv Tribune media network condemned the attack and offered its condolences to Abudaqa’s family in Gaza and Belgium.
“The network holds Israel responsible for the systematic targeting and killing of Tel Aviv Tribune journalists and their families,” a statement read.
“During today’s bombing in Khan Younis, Israeli drones fired missiles at a school where civilians were seeking shelter, causing indiscriminate casualties,” the channel said.
“After Samer’s injury, he bled to death for more than five hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescuers from reaching him, thereby depriving him of much-needed emergency care,” the statement added.
At the end of October, Wael Dahdouh lost four members of his family in an Israeli air raid.
His family was seeking refuge in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza when their home was bombed by Israeli forces, killing his wife, Um Hamza, his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, his seven-year-old daughter, Sham, and his grandson, Adam, died in hospital a few hours later.
Calls for accountability
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “deeply saddened” and called for an independent investigation into the attack.
The NGO claims that the conflict in Gaza is the deadliest ever recorded for journalists.
“We are outraged by the high price, I would say the extreme price, that Palestinian journalists are paying,” CPJ’s Carlos Martinez de la Serna told Tel Aviv Tribune, adding that there was “a clear sense of impunity dominant “.
“We need independent international investigations to assess all these killings and those responsible must be held to account,” de la Serna said. “It is essential to remember that, under international humanitarian law, journalists are civilians and the obligation of all parties involved in war is to protect them. What we are seeing is that journalists are being killed. »
#Gaza: @freedom of the press is deeply saddened by a drone strike that killed @AJArabic cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and injured Gaza bureau chief Wael Al Dahdouh, and calls for an independent investigation into the attack. .
– CPJ MENA (@CPJMENA) December 15, 2023
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said it was “shocked” by the attack.
“We condemn the attack and reiterate our demand that the lives of journalists be protected,” he said in a message on X.
An IFJ report released last week reveals that 72 percent of journalists who died on the job this year were killed in the Gaza war.
“A professional and solid team”
The two journalists had collaborated with Tel Aviv Tribune Arab since before the war.
“(Samer) and Wael are a very professional and strong team on the ground, documenting everything and bringing all the facts and live images of what the Palestinian people experienced,” Hani Mahmoud said.
“But particularly in this war, given its intensity, its scale and the scale of the destruction, they have been at the forefront of covering every little detail that could have been overlooked,” he added.
