2 more Al Jazeera journalists severely wounded in Gaza strike

Fellow journalists carry the body of Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network, who was killed in a reported Israeli air strike during his funeral in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on January 7, 2024. Picture: Mohammed ABED / AFP

Fellow journalists carry the body of Hamza Wael Dahdouh, a journalist with the Al Jazeera television network, who was killed in a reported Israeli air strike during his funeral in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on January 7, 2024. Picture: Mohammed ABED / AFP

Published Feb 13, 2024

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Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera said Tuesday two of its journalists were severely wounded in an Israeli strike in Gaza's southern city of Rafah.

Reporter Ismail Abu Omar's life is at risk after he had his right leg amputated, while doctors are attempting to save the left one, Al Jazeera said quoting an emergency physician.

Cameraman Ahmad Matar was described by Al Jazeera as being in a "serious condition" after being targeted by an Israeli drone in northern Rafah.

The two journalists have been admitted to the European Hospital, on the southern edge of Khan Yunis city.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the two were hit in a strike from an Israeli warplane in the Moraj area.

Hamas's government media office said it "condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation army's targeting of the Al Jazeera crew".

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike when contacted by AFP, saying only it would check the details of the incident.

Two other journalists with the broadcaster have been killed during Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, while bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh was wounded.

His son and fellow journalist Hamza Wael al-Dahdouh was killed when Israeli forces targeted a car last month, along with another video journalist, Mustafa Thuria.

The network's cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa was killed in a separate strike in December.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths of at least 85 journalists and media workers -- 78 of them Palestinian -- since the war erupted on October 7.

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