Journalist Wael Dahdouh 'the mountain,' inspires Gaza through tragedy

He’s being called “Al-Jabal,” Arabic for “the mountain,” for continuing to stand tall as tragedy has befallen him over the course of the Gaza war. Palestinian journalist Wael Dahdouh buried his son Hamza on Sunday and lost his wife, 15-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter and 18-month old grandson in an Israeli strike in October. 

Wael himself was treated after a strike last month that left shrapnel wounds in his right hand, but he continues to go on air as Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, becoming a symbol of the resilience of the Palestinian people and the determination of journalists to expose what is happening in Gaza.

Speaking to Al Jazeera after burying his son on Sunday, Dahdouh vowed to continue reporting from Gaza.

“The whole world must look at what is happening here in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “What is happening is a great injustice to defenseless people, civilian people. It is also unfair for us as journalists.”

The Israeli military has yet to comment on Sunday’s strike.

Back on Oct. 25, Dahdouh was reporting live on air when he received news that his wife, Amna, along with his 15-year-old son Mahmoud, seven-year-old daughter Sham, and his one-and-a-half-year-old grandson Adam, were killed in an Israeli air raid that struck a house they were sheltering in in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The family had fled their home in Tel el-Hawa in Gaza City amid the intense Israeli bombardment. Eight more of his relatives were also killed in the same strike.

Dahdouh was also injured in December when an Israeli strike hit a school in Khan Younis where he and his colleague, Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, were reporting. Abu Daqqa was killed in the attack.

Just one day before he was killed, Hamza had shared a post on X praising his father’s perseverance. The post is now being widely shared on social media.

إنك الصابر المحتسب يا أبي، فلا تيأس من الشفاء ولا تقنط من رحمة الله وكن على يقين أن الله سيجزيك خيرًا لما صبرت•••#غزة #وائل_الدحدوح #معلش @WaelDahdouh pic.twitter.com/l1ZQMJMTd0

— Hamza Dahdouh (@hamzadah1996) January 6, 2024

Who is Wael Dahdouh?

Dahdouh, 53, was born and raised in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Zaytoun. He hails from a well-off Palestinian family of farmers, according to Al Jazeera.

Dahdouh was still in high school in 1988 when he was arrested by Israeli forces for his participation in the first Palestinian intifada that erupted in the Gaza Strip before spreading to other Palestinian territories. He received his high school diploma inside prison. After spending seven years in Israeli jails, Dahdouh obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media from the Islamic University of Gaza in 1998.

He sought to travel abroad to complete higher studies, but Israel repeatedly prevented him from leaving Gaza. Eventually, he was able to join Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, in the West Bank, where he received his master’s degree in regional studies in 2007.

Dahdouh’s journalism career began in 1998. He worked for several local newspapers and stations, including Al-Quds daily, the Voice of Palestine radio channel and the Sahar satellite channel. In 2003, he joined regional broadcasters, working briefly for Al-Arabiya before settling in Al Jazeera. He has been reporting for the pan-Arab network and heading its Gaza bureau since 2004.

Dahdouh rose to prominence as one of the few journalists reporting from Gaza. He has reported extensively during each of the successive Israeli wars on the besieged enclave. According to Al Jazeera, Dahdouh had already lost nearly 20 of his relatives, including siblings and cousins, at the hands of Israel over the years before the current war.

In 2013, he received the Peace Through Media Award during the International Media Awards held in London.

He married his wife Amna in 2004, and they had eight children. Five remain: Bissan, 25, Sundus, 23, Khuloud, 21, Batoul, 18, and Yehia, 12.

The Gaza war has been described as the deadliest for journalists in decades. The Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths of at least 79 journalists and media workers in the region since the war began in October.

In a Monday statement, the CPJ called for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that killed Hamza and Tharaya.

“The continuous killings of journalists and their family members by Israeli army fire must end: Journalists are civilians, not targets,” the CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator Sherif Mansour said in a statement.

Israel has repeatedly denied accusations of intentionally targeting journalists in Gaza, saying it only targets Hamas.

“We do not target civilians,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy told reporters last month.

Nearly 23,000 people have been killed and more than 58,000 others injured since Israel launched its air and ground campaign against Gaza on Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the enclave.