PNN – “Wael Dahdouh”, the head of Al Jazeera’s office in the Gaza Strip, emphasized in an interview with the Spanish “El Pais” newspaper that reporters and journalists in Gaza manage to narrate only a small part of the barbarity, and the Zionist regime deliberately kills them so that they do not continue to document the war.
According to Pakistan News Network’s report from El Pais newspaper, Wael Dahdouh, a 53-year-old veteran Palestinian reporter, is the head of the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera in Gaza, who lost his wife, two children, a grandchild and a number of relatives in the Israeli bombing, but decided to put aside the pain of loss and “follow his commitment to Keep informing.” Two months later, he himself was injured in an Israeli attack and his cameraman Samer Abu Daqeh was martyred. In January, Dahdouh’s eldest son was killed when his car was targeted by an Israeli bombardment.
This Palestinian journalist, without intending to, has become a symbol of the suffering of two million and 200 thousand residents of Gaza and the endurance of its journalists, who are the eyes of the world in this conflict that the press is not allowed to enter. In an interview with this newspaper in the city of Córdoba, where he received the Julio Anguita Parrado Journalism Award and gave a speech at the Casa Árabe Institute, he stated: I believe in the humanitarian mission of journalism. Our mission is to continue informing.
According to Reporters Without Borders, more than 100 journalists have been violently killed in Gaza since October. The Committee to Protect Journalists has announced that this conflict, in which at least 33,000 Palestinians have been martyred, is the bloodiest conflict for journalists since the statistics were recorded by this organization in 1992.
Wael Dahdouh presented the Julio Angita Parado Award, named after a Spanish journalist killed in the Iraq war in 2003, to his colleagues in Gaza and told El Pais: Israel deliberately kills journalists in Gaza. In other wars, they did not target journalists like this. I cannot come up with an explanation for the bombing of the house where my family was sheltering in Nusirat (central Gaza), for the attack that killed my son Hamza, or for the attack that injured me and nearly killed me. Most of these bombings are carried out by drones, which are very precise and know who is in that place at that moment. We drive in cars marked with the words “press” or “television”. We wear the hats and vests of journalists. Israel does not want us to continue documenting what is happening, but Palestinian journalists have decided to continue reporting, living in fear and knowing that we might become the news ourselves.
Dahdouh, describing his situation after the October 7th attack by Hamas fighters on the positions of the Zionist regime, said: On October 7, I woke up to go to the office and saw from the window rockets flying from the sky towards Israel. I said to my late wife, “Let’s prepare ourselves because a long war is coming.” From the very first days, I said it would take up to four months, and they told me it was an exaggeration. Now I see that I was optimistic. All the suffering we have suffered in previous attacks by Israel is not even a quarter of what we have suffered in this attack. From the beginning, Israel closed all border crossings, deprived Gaza of food, water, electricity, medicine, and bombed homes without warning.
Dahdouh said in response to the statement of Al-Pais reporter that “you repeated that when your wife and children died in the bombing, you did not hesitate to continue your work”, said: I believe in the humanitarian mission of journalism. Our mission is to continue to inform. But the journalists of Gaza at this moment and no matter how hard they try, they can only express a small corner of barbarism. Since the beginning of the war, I always thought that I should work no matter what happened, but with the dead bodies of my children and my wife, who was the pillar of the family, I hesitated to continue. However, I decided to continue. My wife and children always sacrificed for me. They did not have my love and support during the wars so that I could continue my responsibility. That’s why I went back to work. It was a challenge. Because I didn’t like to appear in front of the camera or even talk about myself. I wanted to speak professionally about the war, as if nothing had happened to me. I think I succeeded, but it offended Israel.
Wael Dahdouh expressed his view on the performance of the Spanish government towards Palestine and the question that “after six months of bombing, is only rhetoric enough or not?” said: It is clear that people who live the daily life of war need more support, more relief. Their need is more than this. The attitude of the Spanish government in the midst of this brutal war has been welcomed by the Palestinians. We value Spain, as well as its efforts, along with other European governments, to follow through on their words, to apply more pressure and, now, for a ceasefire and for the Palestinians to regain their rights. We know this is a difficult task.
Regarding the future that awaits Gaza, he said: It cannot be predicted. No one in the Gaza Strip knows what will happen, whether this war will end in a week or continue for months. Sometimes there is talk of an agreement, a ceasefire, but nothing happens and the bombings increase. The population of Gaza is in danger and it is feared that the war will drag on even longer.