Wael Dahdouh, head of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau – who lost his wife, two children and nine other relatives in an Israeli attack in October – said his final goodbyes to his eldest son today. Hamza, like his father, was a journalist and was killed when the car he was traveling in with another journalist was hit in Rafah. The other journalist – Mustafa Thuria (a video editor) – was also killed in the rocket attack.
Their vehicle was near al-Mawasi – a “safe area” – when it was hit, Al Jazeera reported.
“Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul,” Mr Dahdouh dejectedly told Al Jazeera as he spoke from the cemetery where his son was buried.
“I hope that the blood of my son Hamza will be the last blood of both journalists and people in the Gaza Strip,” he added.
Harrowing images on social media showed Hamza's inconsolable wife and siblings rushing to the cemetery for a last look before he was buried. Wael Dahdouh stood by his head and tried to comfort the rest of his family. Another video showed him kissing his son's hand as he fought back tears.
Al Jazeera has condemned the killing and attacks of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. “Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns the attacks by the Israeli occupation forces on the car of Palestinian journalists,” the company said in a statement, accusing Israel of “violating the principles of press freedom.”
Mr. Dahdouh became the face of all the journalists reporting from Ground Zero on Israel's war on Gaza when he learned that several of his relatives were killed in the same bombing he was reporting on in October.
World watched as he rushed to the hospital where the bodies of his loved ones were kept. Footage showed him mourning the bodies of his wife and children at a hospital in Deir el-Balah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
His family was staying in a temporary house, again a “safe area,” after evacuating Gaza City following Israel's warning to residents to move south as forces intensified attacks on Hamas.
At least 113 people have been killed in Israeli bombings in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said in the besieged area controlled by Hamas.
The war began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, resulting in around 1,140 deaths, most of them civilians. The Hamas operatives also took about 250 hostages, of whom Israel says 132 remain in captivity. At least 24 deaths are believed to have occurred.
In response, Israel carried out a brutal bombardment and ground invasion that killed at least 22,835 people, most of them women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed again at a cabinet meeting: “I have a clear message for our enemies: what happened on October 7 will not happen again.