‘That Speaks to the Absolute Slaughter!’ Anchor Confronts Israeli Spokesman on IDF Wiping Out Reporter’s Family

The human toll of the Israel-Hamas War is undoubtedly devastating, with a civilian death toll reaching 24,100 according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Last week, news broke that another member of the family of Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh was killed, effectively wiping out much of the journalist’s family. British journalist Lewis Goodall of The News Agents wanted to ask Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy for his reaction.

The conversation became heated after Goodall asked Levy about journalist deaths in Gaza (around the 19:30 mark), a number that has outdone journalist casualties of any other war in a short amount of time, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Al-Dahdouh’s 27-year-old son Hamzah al-Dahdouh was a Palestinian journalist who was killed in an Israeli drone strike on January 7 while driving to an assignment.

Goodall: Why are so many journalists being killed in Gaza?

Levy: Well, one of the journalists who was killed recently happened to be hitching a ride with Hamas terrorists, who was operating a drone. And if you have a look at that list of journalists who were killed, have you looked through the list?

Goodall: I have looked at the list —

Levy: Have you, how many did you count —

Goodall: That’s from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Levy: Exactly. On that list, how many people did you find who were listed as being Hamas-affiliated media?

Goodall: There were lots of people who worked for Gazan media, yes.

Levy: I counted at least 20.

Goodall: You will accept that there have been journalists who have been killed —

Levy: I don’t think that you can be a card-carrying member of Hamas and a journalist as well. I think it would be equally preposterous to speak of ISIS-affiliated, or ISIS-affiliated journalists being killed during the bombing campaign of Raqqa and Mosul, which, by the way, also leveled those cities.

Goodall: Whether they’re journalists or not, in some ways, respectively, more journalists have been killed in three months of Israel’s war in Gaza than all of, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, most of all of World War II or the Vietnam War. Compare it to the Ukrainian war, which obviously been going on for longer, 15 journalists were killed in the whole of 2022. Whether they’re journalists or not, the fact that so many are dying does speak of the mass slaughter, doesn’t it?

Levy: It speaks of the fact that Hamas is waging war from inside densely populated areas. Lewis, we didn’t pick this battlefield. We didn’t even pick this war.

The conversation got even more heated when Goodall brought up al-Dadouh’s family, once again saying that it’s indicative of the “mass slaughter” being directed by the IDF. Levy’s response was that “war is awful”:

Goodall: Just on the journalist point, what would you say? You would have seen the case, of course, of Mr. Wael al-Dahdouh, whose, his son, a journalist, killed in Israeli strike. Al Jazeera bureau chief there, his wife Anna, his grandchild, 15-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter, all killed since October. I mean, again, that speaks to the absolute slaughter that’s going on. That’s one family.

Levy: Lewis —

Goodall: You must hear that and be appalled.

Levy: Lewis, war is awful.

Goodall: And so there we go. That’s it.

Levy: No, Lewis, war is awful. And we want this war to end. But we need this war to end in a way that makes sure that Hamas can’t attack us again. Because if we do not destroy Hamas, the consequence of inaction is going to be that it will slaughter our people again, like it did on October 7th.

Now we are facing a uniquely challenging battlefield that no army in the history of the world has dealt with. And we’re doing a stellar job trying to adhere to the principles of proportionality, precaution, and distinction.

Watch the full interview via The News Agents on YouTube.

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