Wael Dahdouh: "Israel has failed: instead of silencing us, it motivated us to continue reporting"

BarcelonaThe Gazan journalist Wael Dahdouh has, unwillingly, become a living legend in Palestine. His face – helmeted, wearing a flak jacket marked “Press” – now appears in murals painted by graffiti artists on walls across the world. From the first hours of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, the veteran reporter and Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in the Strip was broadcasting live, day and night, on screens throughout the Arab world. With a calm, didactic tone and the precision of someone who knows every inch of the territory and has a deep network of contacts, he narrated the unfolding war.

He was also on air on the night of 25 October 2023 when he learned that an Israeli missile had struck the house in Nuseirat, in central Gaza, where his family had sought refuge. His wife, Amina, forty-four; his fifteen-year-old son, Mahmoud; his seven-year-old daughter, Sham; his eighteen-month-old grandson, Adam; and eight other relatives were killed. Still on air, he went to the hospital to retrieve their bodies. “You take revenge on us through our children,” he said, his voice broken.

The next day he picked up the microphone once more and continued working. Two months later, a drone struck the car he was travelling in. He suffered a hand injury from which he is still recovering, and survived only by chance; the cameraman with him died in agony as ambulances waited for Israeli greenlight to reach them.

Dahdouh still did not give up. Soon afterwards, he lost his eldest son, Hamza – who had followed in his footsteps at Al Jazeera – killed in a car alongside his colleague Mustafa Thuraya. In the end, he left Gaza, the only way to care for the children who had survived.

From his bitter exile in Doha, he continues to speak about Gaza and to support the colleagues he left behind. At least 250 journalists have been killed, while Israel continues to block independent access for foreign media. Dahdouh has travelled to Barcelona to take part in the Unsilence Forum, organised by the Act x Palestine campaign.

Israel has killed more than 250 journalists in Gaza. This is unprecedented. Why?

— “The aim of this assault on the press is clear: to kill the truth and the messenger. Israel laid siege to Gaza, cut off electricity, shattered the social fabric, and then pursued journalists in an effort to silence us forever, to prevent the world from seeing the genocide. I know of no other extermination of journalists on this scale. From the outset, Israel targeted media offices, reporters and their families, with an intense campaign that has not stopped. But they did not achieve what they intended. Instead of silencing us, they gave us greater resolve to keep reporting. This persecution has only driven journalists to continue working and delivering the message. Long ago we ran out of reactions, lost our homes, lost almost everything, yet we chose to keep reporting. Despite it all, we did not allow Israel to impose silence. There was no option but to continue documenting the brutality being inflicted on us. And from outside Gaza, I continue doing what I have done all my life, until God decides otherwise.”

The personal price you've paid is enormous. Do you regret it?

— No, and I don't think my colleagues feel the same way. We chose this job, we love it, and we believe deeply in it. We believe in the importance and the greatness of journalism, and we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for that mission. We don't complain, because it's the profession we've chosen, and we accept all the responsibilities it entails. For me, it has come at a personal cost, but the important thing for the world is to learn the lesson: we don't do bureaucratic journalism, the kind that seeks fame, money, and the limelight. Journalism is just a means to an end. What matters is focusing on what people need, on their concerns and their suffering. Our job is to shed light on injustice. Many colleagues have paid the price for that commitment with their lives, and I cannot back down. I must continue working, if only for their memory.

Have you felt abandoned by major international news agencies and mainstream media?

— A lot, and for a long time. One of the most painful things for me was seeing how the major agencies, media outlets, and global institutions covered up the murder of journalists. It wasn't that we wanted the world to pity us, but we did expect a minimum of professionalism from these large institutions. We had been told they were defenders of freedom of expression, of freedom of the press. But they were looking at Gaza through Israeli eyes and ears. At the very least, they could have been objective and professional. We didn't want gratuitous sympathy, just for them to do their job. Unfortunately, they failed in three ways: they didn't give the facts the space they deserved, they didn't provide professional coverage of what was happening, and they didn't help their own colleagues as they were being exterminated, as if that extermination didn't affect freedom of the press. In many cases, they didn't even help journalists who worked for these same media outlets: they said they had been killed off-duty, or that they were freelance without a contract...

How do you see the situation in Gaza now?

— Very difficult. Now winter is beginning. There's a storm raging these days, and all the shops are flooded, including those of journalists. The border crossings remain closed: no one can leave or enter the Gaza Strip. The world believes the genocide has stopped, but the war continues in all its forms, including against journalists. Even after the agreement, we lost a colleague and his family in a direct attack on their home. Everything is still destroyed.