Al Jazeera’s staff have been on the receiving end of threats and attacks for the network’s round the clock coverage of the atrocities on the ground. Al Jazeera said  Abu Daqqa was targeted in two different airstrikes. 

Al Jazeera’s cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa succumbed to his injuries on Friday after being hit by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Abu Daqqa was injured alongside Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, while they were covering an Israeli attack on the Farhana school in Gaza. 

Al Dahdouh’s arm was injured by a shrapnel from the Israeli air strike and Palestinians managed to get him to the Nasser Hospital in Gaza, where doctors said he needs surgery. 

Abu Daqqa was left trapped inside the school for six hours as Israeli forces prevented medics from reaching him with nonstop shelling.

The ambulances had to receive prior approval to reach Abu Daqqa, according to Al Jazeera.

In a statement released hours before Abu Daqqa was pronounced dead, Al Jazeera said it held “the Israeli occupation army fully responsible” for his safety.

“We confirm that this new crime is part of a systematic targeting of the network’s correspondents and their families in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.

Al Jazeera’s staff have been on the receiving end of threats and attacks for the network’s round the clock coverage of the atrocities on the ground.

On October 25, Israel killed four family members of Al Dahdouh in southern Gaza. l Dahdouh’s wife, 15-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter and infant grandson were killed by the Israeli strike.

Israel had announced the south to be a safe zone before the attack. Dahdouh found out about the killing of his family members while he was reporting on live television.

On October 31, Israel killed 19 family members of Al Jazeera Arabic’s broadcast engineer, Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan, during a massacre at the Jabalia camp. 

The Israeli attack killed Al-Qumsan’s father, two sisters, eight nephews and nieces, his brother, his brother’s wife and their four children, his sister-in-law, and one uncle. 

Israel then killed 22 family members of Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent, Moamen Al Sharafi, on December 6 in an attack on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

On December 11, Israeli forces killed the father of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif in a strike in northern Gaza, two weeks after occupation forces threatened to target him.

The targeting of journalists has intensified since the start of the Israeli genocide on Gaza on October 7.

Israel has killed 56 Palestinian journalists in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to figures published by the Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday. But the International Federation of Journalists counted at least 68 journalists. Over 70% of all media deaths this year happened in Gaza, according to IFJ.

As of Friday evening, Israel has killed at least 18,787 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestine’s health authorities.

Abu Daqqa had been a cameraman with Aljazeera for 20 years.