New Delhi:
“Help us stay alive…” – a plaintive and desperate plea from a young girl and her brother from the Gaza Strip. The two are the children of senior Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al Dahdouh, and their heart-breaking plea was made just days before their mother and two siblings were killed in an Israeli strike.
“.. do you know what is happening in the Gaza Strip?” Kholoud, his daughter, asks in a 43-second video shared early Wednesday by the Qatari state-owned media network.
The camera then pans to her brother, Mahmoud. “… (from) the first day Gaza is living in continuous violence… a complete siege with (no) electricity, internet and water… and targeting of safe houses.”
“Whole neighbourhoods have been destroyed,” Kholoud continues the sad narrative as the video shows residential buildings reduced to rubble and entire streets covered in that debris.
“In Gaza there is no safe place…” she says.
“Help us to stay alive” was their outcry to the world from Gaza.
Mahmoud, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Wael Dahdouh son, joined by his sister Kholoud, sent a message to the world, days before Mahmoud, his mother, and younger sister Sham were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/HWJ8SjIpvx
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
Days later her mother, 15-year-old brother, and seven-year-old sister were killed in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which Israeli forces had called a “safe area”.
Mr Dahdouh was reporting live from that camp – to which his family and he had escaped after Israel’s harsh order two weeks ago, directing over a million civilians to flee north Gaza in 24 hours.
READ |Al Jazeera Journalist’s Family, In Gaza “Safe Area”, Die In Israeli Strike
Shortly after he went off air, an Al Jazeera anchor said tearfully, “A number of family members of our colleague, Wael Al Dahdouh were martyred, including his wife, son and daughter. He was with us a little while ago… was reporting bombing that targeted the area where his family members (were).”
The Qatari broadcaster later aired visuals of a grief-stricken Mr Dahdouh at the morgue in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Palestine’s Deir el-Balah, to see the bodies of his family members.
The family of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh has been killed in an Israeli attack at the Al Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, where they had forcibly evacuated to shelter from Israeli bombardments ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ya64Lgunbp
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
“This is the fiercest and most violent war we have lived (through) in Gaza,” Mahmoud, his son, continues in his video to the sound of rockets exploding. Israel’s strikes have killed over 6,000 Palestinians so far, with more than 700 dying in overnight raids alone, Al Jazeera reported this morning.
READ |Why Israel Is Attacking South Gaza After Telling Civilians To Go There
The gut-wrenching video concludes with a montage of shuttered shops, desolate streets and rubble-strewn cities, as Kholoud asks, “Where are the human rights? Where are the international laws? Where are the countries of the world to see what is happening to us?”
Israel’s attacks come after Hamas gunmen on October 7 killed over 1,400 people, including civilians.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the strikes till Hamas – which it has likened to Islamic terrorist group ISIS – is completely destroyed.
READ |“All Hamas Members Are Dead Men Walking”: Israel’s Netanyahu
Tel Aviv has allowed small aid convoys to enter Gaza, a heavily blockaded strip of land home to over two million people, but the amount of food, water, medicines and other supplies is not enough.
READ | Israeli Tanks Enter North Gaza In “Targeted” Overnight Raid, Retreat Later
Gaza has been subject to a “complete siege” for days.
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