A Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist returned to reporting from Gaza on Thursday, just days after much of his family was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Wael al-Dahdouh, who serves as Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, lost his wife, son, daughter and infant grandson on Wednesday after an Israeli airstrike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where al-Dahdouh’s family had taken shelter.
However, al-Dahdouh returned to work Thursday, calling it his “duty” to continue reporting from the front line of Israel’s war with the militant group Hamas.
“As you can see, the firing is ongoing everywhere,” al-Dahdouh said in Arabic in a video posted to X by AJ+, which is owned by Al Jazeera, showing billowing black smoke in Gaza from a recent artillery strike. “There are airstrikes and artillery shelling, and things continue to develop.”
“I felt that it was my duty, despite the pain and the open wound, to get back in front of the camera and to communicate with you on social media as soon as possible,” al-Dahdouh continued.
In a statement published Wednesday, the Al Jazeera Media Network called the strike an “indiscriminate assault,” and expressed concerns about the safety and wellbeing of the company’s journalists working in and around Gaza.
“The Network strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting and killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, which has led to the loss of Wael Al-Dahdouh’s family and countless others,” the network said. “We urge the international community to intervene and put an end to these attacks on civilians, thereby safeguarding innocent lives.”
According to a report by the New York Times, Israeli military officials claimed to have targeted “Hamas terrorist infrastructure” in the area of the refugee camp, and that the state’s military forces take “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian casualties.”
Hamas fighters killed some 1,400 people in southern Israel earlier this month, spurring the Jewish state to launch a retaliatory bombing campaign across Gaza that has killed more than 7,000 Palestinians, many of whom are civilians, and injured thousands more.