Israel killed Dahdouh’s wife, two sons, one of his daughters and infant grandson in a strike in the south.
The mother of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, passed away in one of the Strip’s hospitals on Sunday after battling an illness, adding to the renowned journalist’s losses of close family members within the past four months.
Al Jazeera confirmed the tragic news as Dahdouh took to social media to mourn his mother’s loss. In a heartfelt Instagram post, Dahdouh expressed his sorrow over the loss of his mother which added to his grief.
“How difficult it is for worries, pains, and sorrows to overwhelm a person’s heart and life all at once. And how difficult is it for the pains of loss that confront us from every side in this year of grief to be among them?” Dahdouh said.
“Today we lost one of the gates of Paradise and we lost a heart that used to pray for us and for Muslims morning and evening, my beloved mother,” he added.
Dahdouh and his family were among Israel’s main targets due to his extensive coverage of the genocide in Gaza, where Israel killed more than 27,000 Palestinians – including more than 100 journalists.
On October 25, Israel killed Dahdouh’s wife, 15-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter and infant grandson in a strike in the south, despite Israel announcing the area to be a safe zone before the attack.
Israel then killed Dahdouh’s eldest son, Hamza, on January 7 when it targeted his vehicle in Gaza alongside Palestinian journalist Mustafa Thurayya.
Dahdouh then survived an Israeli attack in Gaza on December 15, 2023, which killed his lifelong colleague and Al Jazeera cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa. The Al Jazeera journalist was then evacuated from Gaza on January 16 to receive treatment for his injury from the attack.
Describing his late mother, Dahdouh said she was “a righteous, faithful, kind, and compassionate woman.”
“We have lost someone who does not know hatred, envy, malice and who does not know how gossip[…]we lost an angel in human form. We lost someone who spent decades of her life in fatigue, misery, grief, loss, and poverty with patience, faith, and the contentment of a lifetime with all the goodness and beauty of her heart,” he said.
Dahdouh also described her as one of Palestine’s strongest women, saying she “has struggled since her childhood, strove, bonded, and raised the martyrs, the wounded, and the detainees in the occupation prisons.”
“She gave birth to Palestine’s sixteen sons and daughters, of whom eleven remain. Two of the five were martyred on the battlefields. May God have mercy on you, my mother, the joy of my soul, the balm of my heart, the tranquillity of my soul, and the blessing and beauty of life,” Dahdouh said, praying she meets his other family members in Paradise.
Israel has killed at least 27,365 people, including more than 17,000 children, and wounded 66,630 others since launching its genocidal war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The attacks on hospitals and the complete siege on Gaza left only 13 out of 36 of its hospitals, or 36%, partially functional. Critically ill and wounded Palestinians have remained trapped inside Gaza without basic resources to survive nor urgent medical supplies.
