The eldest son of Al Jazeera’s bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, has been killed in Gaza.
His death was announced by BBC on Sunday.
A missile hit the vehicle of the 27-year-old Hamza Dahbdouh along with his colleagues, Mustafa Thuraya, while out reporting.
While mourning his son, Al-Dahdouh said, “May Allah reward you greatly. Abu Hamza, may Allah reward your endeavour.”
The Al Jazeera bureau chief had lost most of his family.
The wife, son, daughter and grandson of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza were killed in an Israeli air raid.
Footage aired on Al Jazeera showed Dahdouh entering the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah to see his dead wife, son and daughter in the morgue.
He was shown crouching and touching the face of his 15-year-old son, Mahmoud, who wanted to be a journalist like his father.
Looking shocked, 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.
The video later revealed where he was holding the shrouded body of his seven-year-old daughter, Sham, seeming to speak to her as he looked at her bloodied face after the attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Some members of Dahdouh’s family, including a toddler granddaughter, survived the attack on the house they were staying in at the Nuseirat refugee camp south of Wadi Gaza.
Speaking from Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Youmna Elsayed said, “It’s heartbreaking to be reporting about Wael’s family and to see how broken he is. He calms everyone. He speaks to us like a big brother, not just a bureau chief.
“He didn’t leave Gaza City. He stayed despite all the threats and warnings and didn’t stop for 19 days in a row. He said, ‘I must be here in Gaza City to report about these people who are getting bombed every day.’
“He didn’t give up on them. He didn’t want to leave.”
