DOHA: The family of an Al Jazeera correspondent was killed in Gaza on Wednesday night after an Israeli strike, while the Aqsa Radio said in a Telegram post early on Thursday that one of its female journalists, Doaa Ashraf, was also killed in latest air raid.

The Qatar-based network said in a statement on Wednesday, the wife and two children of its Arabic-language channel’s Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh were killed in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza Strip.

“The Al Jazeera Media Network extends its sincere condolences and sympathy to our colleague Wael Al-Dahdouh on the loss of his family in an Israeli airstrike,” it said. “The indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation forces resulted in the tragic loss of his wife, son and daughter, while the rest of his family is buried under the rubble.”

In images and footage run by Al Jazeera and shared on social media, Al-Dahdouh was shown mourning over the bodies of his wife and children at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Al-Dahdouh spoke to Al Jazeera on his way out of the hospital: “What happened is clear. This is a series of targeted attacks on children, women and civilians. I was just reporting from Yarmouk about such an attack, and the Israeli raids have targeted many areas, including Nuseirat.

“We had our doubts that the Israeli occupation would not let these people go without punishing them. And sadly, that is what happened. This is the ‘safe’ area that the occupation army spoke of.”

Al Jazeera said the family were staying in a temporary home after evacuating Gaza City following Israel’s warning for residents to move south as its forces intensified strikes in Gaza.

“This is the safe zone the occupation (Israeli) army was talking about,” Al-Dahdouh said on Al Jazeera.

The media organisation said “their home was targeted in the Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza, where they had sought refuge after being displaced by the initial bombardment in their neighbourhood.” “Al Jazeera is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of our colleagues in Gaza and hold the Israeli authorities responsible for their security,” it added.

The Turkish news agency reported on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked the Qataris to “turn down” Al Jazeera’s coverage of the situation in Gaza. The report cited one of its source said Blinken “appeared to be talking about Al Jazeera Arabic, not Al Jazeera English.”

In addition, the news drew a strong reaction from journalists’ fraternity, Barry Malone, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Thomson Reuters Foundation said “Horrible for a network that has already been through so much in its relatively short history,” he said on X formally Twitter.

The British journalist Sameh Habeeb called the act “criminal and barbaric”. Rania Zabaneh, a producer at Al Jazeera English, said, “There is no safe place in Gaza”.

“It’s beyond words,” said Zeba Warsi, a journalist with PBS NewsHour. She also shared the video of another journalist based in Gaza breaking down after learning that his family had been killed.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2023