Two More Journalists Killed in Gaza

Mourners at the funeral for journalists killed in Israel-Hamas war
Mourners at the burial of journalists Hamza Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya in western Gaza on Jan. 7. (Image credit: Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Al Jazeera Journalist Hamza Dahdouh and freelancer Mustafa Thuraya were killed Sunday (January 7) in an Israeli airstrike in the Western part of Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Dahdouh was the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, whose wife Amna; grandchild Adam; son Mahmoud, and seven-year-old daughter Sham, were killed in an airstrike back in October.

According to the news outlet, Hamza Dahdouh and Thuraya were in a supposed "safe area," and were targeted by Israeli forces, a charge that the Committee to Protect Journalists has been leveling given the large number of journalist deaths, most of them Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The journalists were said to be trying to interview displaced civilians when they were killed.

CPJ says that more journalists have been killed -- 77 was the count before Sunday's deaths -- in the 10 weeks of this war than in a year in any single country since CPJ has been keeping track of journalists deaths.

Of that 77, says CPJ, 70 were Palestinian.

"CPJ is particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families by the Israeli military," CPJ says. "In at least one case, a journalist was killed while clearly wearing press insignia in a location where no fighting was taking place."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Sunday called on the Biden Administration to condemn what it said was Israel's targeting of journalists.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.