Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Finds Out Live On Air His Wife and Children Are Dead
Mohamed Moawad on Twitter/X
Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Dahdouh found out his wife and two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike while reporting live from an overrun hospital in Gaza, the outlet reported.
Al Jazeera managing editor Mohamed Moawad posted a video on his Twitter/X account of Dahdouh walking with another member of the press through the corridors of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
“Aljazeera’s brave veteran journalist Wael Dahdouh’s wife, son and daughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike which targeted a shelter house they had fled to,” he wrote.
Aljazeera’ s brave veteran journalist Wael Dahdouh’s wife, son and daughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike which targeted a shelter house they had fled to. Wael received the news while on air covering the nonstop Israeli strikes on Gaza! pic.twitter.com/G2Z8UreboU
— Mohamed Moawad (@moawady) October 25, 2023
Al Jazeera, which is funded by Qatar, reported that his wife, his 15-year-old son Mahmoud, who wanted to be a journalist like his father, and his seven-year-old daughter Sham were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat camp, where his family fled to from their home in northern Gaza. Al-Dahdouh’s other son Yehia was wounded and required a serious procedure on his head, Al Jazeera reported. It was later reported that Al-Dahdouh’s infant grandson was also killed in the strike. CNN also reported that Al-Dahdouh’s immediate family were among 12 family members he lost in the strike at the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Mediaite obtained photos of Dahdouh in the aftermath of the strike from Gaza-based journalist Fadel Mghari:
Photos by journalist Fadel Mghari
Photos by journalist Fadel Mghari
Photos by journalist Fadel Mghari
More photos and videos of Dahdouh holding the lifeless bodies of his children and weeping over the body of his wife were posted on X.
The Daily Beast reported on the moment Dahdouh found out about his family on air:
“There have been several airstrikes in this area, adjacent to Wafa hospital…. This looks like it’s going to be a bloody night,” Al-Dahdou said in a live clip of that devastating moment, as he reported on a separate Israeli airstrike in central Gaza.
The veteran journalist could then be heard talking to someone in the background: “What, what happened? They don’t know where they are?” Someone in the background replied, “Your girl, the girl is in the hospital…”
On the way out of the hospital, a visibly distraught Dahdouh told Al Jazeera in an interview:
What happened is clear, this is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians. I was just reporting from Yarmouk about such an attack, and the Israeli raids have targeted many areas, including Nuseirat.
We had our doubts that the Israeli occupation would not let these people go without punishing them. And sadly that is what happened. This is the “safe” area that the occupation army spoke of.
Al Jazeera issued a blistering statement on the strike:
The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of [Al-Dahdouh’s] wife, son and daughter, which the rest of his family is buried under the rubble. Their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the south of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighbourhood, following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for all civilians to move south.
Read more on Al Jazeera.
This article has been updated.
