Al Jazeera reports that two of its Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip have been in what they say is a targeted Israeli strike on their car. A third freelance journalist travelling with them, Hazem Rajab, was seriously injured.
Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria, who also worked as a video stringer for AFP and other news organisations, were killed while, the network says, they were on their way to carry out their duty for the channel in the Gaza Strip.
The health ministry in Gaza, while confirming the deaths, blamed an Israeli strike. AFP reports that two rockets were fired at the car, with one hitting the front of the vehicle, and the other hitting Hamza who was sitting next to the driver.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while describing the death of the journalists as an unimaginable tragedy, said the same could be said of far too many innocent Palestinian men, women and children.
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Several hours after the strike, the Israeli army had not replied to AFP’s request for a comment.
Hamza’s father, Wael al-Dahdouh, is Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief who was recently wounded in a strike himself which also killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqaafter. Al-Dahdouh’s wife and two other children were killed in Israeli bombardment in the initial weeks of the attacks.
AFP’s global news director, Phil Chetwynd, said the agency was “shocked” by Mustafa Thuria’s death, and its thoughts were with his family. Thuria, in his 30s, had worked with AFP since 2019 and had also worked with other international media outlets.
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