Yesterday, the Gaza Health Ministry announced that two journalists were martyred in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. One of them worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP), and the other was the son of Wael Dahdouh, an Al Jazeera correspondent who survived an airstrike last month.
According to the ministry, Mustafa Tharaya and Hamza Wael Dahdouh were killed in a car raid in the Miraj area of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
In response, AFP requested clarification from the Israeli military on the killing of Tharaya, a 30-year-old videographer who had been working with AFP and other media outlets since 2019.
Dahdouh worked for the Al Jazeera network and had over one million Instagram followers, where he posted daily war updates. About two hours before his death, Hamza posted a video of citizens pulling bodies from under the rubble of a house and another of dead bodies in what appeared to be a morgue.
It is worth noting that veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh has lost most of his immediate family in the Gaza war. His wife, 15-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter, and 18-month-old grandson were all killed during an Israeli strike in October. Wael himself was treated after a strike on the 15th of last month, which left his hand injured with shrapnel wounds.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the deaths of journalists Tharaya and Dahdouh bring the total number of journalists and media workers killed since the beginning of the war to 77. This figure includes the deaths of 70 Palestinian journalists, four Israelis, and three Lebanese in southern Lebanon.
On their part, the Arab World News Agency reported that the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate has recorded the deaths of 107 journalists since the war began on October 7.
Various organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have condemned the high number of journalist deaths in Gaza and have called for investigations into these deaths.
The incidents highlight the dangers journalists face when covering conflicts and have raised concerns about media personnel being targeted.
