Two Al Jazeera Arabic journalists have been wounded whereas masking an Israeli assault on a faculty in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Wael Dahdouh, Gaza bureau chief for Al Jazeera Arabic, and cameraperson Samer Abudaqa have been wounded on Friday by shrapnel from an Israeli missile assault close to Farhana faculty in Khan Younis.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his higher arm, and was transferred to Nasser Hospital with minor accidents.
Abudaqa sustained shrapnel accidents and remained close to the scene of the incident, which paramedics have been unable to succeed in resulting from Israeli hearth, in keeping with Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum. Abudaqa’s situation was not instantly clear.
Witnesses mentioned there was heavy shelling within the space across the faculty.
“The ambulance finds it very troublesome to get to him,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Rafah.
Many Palestinians from the central and northern elements of Gaza have sought shelter in Khan Younis because the warfare started in October. Many have now been pushed additional south in direction of the strip’s southernmost metropolis of Rafah after Israel intensified its navy operations in Khan Younis.
The assault comes amid violent clashes between Palestinian fighters and the Israeli military in areas throughout Gaza. Residents reported preventing in Shejaya, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah, and Beit Hanoun in north Gaza, east of Maghazi in central Gaza and within the centre and northern fringes of Khan Younis, in keeping with the Reuters information service.
In late October, Wael Dahdouh lost four of his family members in an Israeli air raid.
His household had been searching for refuge in Nuseirat camp within the centre of Gaza when their residence was bombed by Israeli forces, killing his spouse, Um Hamza, his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, his seven-year-old daughter, Sham, and his grandson, Adam, who died in hospital hours later.
“Regardless of all of the difficulties, regardless of the death of his family, he rebounded inside minutes to do his job once more. And now, Wael is the sufferer,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.
The Worldwide Federation of Journalists (IFJ) mentioned it was “shocked” on the assault.
“We condemn the assault and reiterate our demand that journalists’ lives have to be safeguarded,” it mentioned in a submit on X.
An IFJ report printed final week discovered that 72 p.c of journalists who died on the job this 12 months have been killed within the Gaza warfare.
#Palestine🇵🇸: We’re deeply shocked to be taught that journalist @WaelDahdouh and digital camera operator Samer Abu Daqqa have been injured whereas masking an earlier Israeli assault on a faculty. We condemn the assault and reiterate our demand that journalists’ lives have to be safeguarded. https://t.co/mjJvgEXJ3z
— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) December 15, 2023
‘Knowledgeable, robust crew’
The 2 journalists have labored along with Al Jazeera Arabic since earlier than the warfare.
“[Samer] and Wael make up a really skilled, robust crew on the bottom, documenting every little thing and bringing all of the info and stay photos of what the Palestinian individuals have been going by way of,” Hani Mahmoud mentioned.
“However notably with this warfare, given its depth in scale and magnitude and the sheer quantity of destruction, they’ve been on the forefront of masking each little element that one might need forgotten about,” he added.
Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the Committee to Shield Journalists, mentioned Palestinian journalists in Gaza felt deserted by the worldwide neighborhood.
“The position of journalists in such a scenario is totally very important – notably in Gaza the place we’ve seen the sorts of establishments that historically additionally assist with the sorts of documentation in regards to the influence, just like the UN officers, have left – so we’re actually solely left with the Gazan journalists doing this essential documentation work,” she advised Al Jazeera.
“The worldwide governments’ failure to push for an finish to this battle is more and more creating an actual sense of abandonment amongst the neighborhood and notably amongst the journalist neighborhood in Palestine and the area,” Ginsberg mentioned.