The Intercept found that the photographer died despite pressure from relief organizations and journalists to save him.
Samer Abu Daqqa, the Al Jazeera cameraman who was killed on December 15 in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, has died, despite a wide network of humanitarian organizations and fellow journalists pressing Israel to help rescue him. Objection It has been reported.
Abu Daqqa was left to bleed to death at the Farhana School in Khan Yunis, where the airstrike hit, as the Israeli military prevented emergency workers from accessing the site despite multiple communications writing to the military seeking approval, according to the report posted on Instagram. Friday.
“The Israeli military was well aware that one of the Al Jazeera journalists was lying helplessly, Intercept reports show, yet it did not allow emergency teams to pass safely for nearly four hours and did not send in a bulldozer for more than an hour after that.” The report said.
She added, “Much evidence points to a targeted Israeli strike on Al Jazeera journalists.”
Abu Daqqa was filming at the school earlier with Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, who was also injured in the airstrike.
“I tried to get up in any way I could because I was sure another missile would target us — and from our experience, that's what usually happens,” Al-Dahdouh told The Intercept.
The veteran journalist told the newspaper that as soon as he realized his arm was bleeding profusely, he knew he needed medical attention, and stumbled into an ambulance hundreds of meters away. He was then transferred to a nearby hospital.
But Abu Daqqa was injured in the lower half of his body and was unable to walk to the ambulance.
Recalling the incident, Dahdouh told The Intercept that as soon as he reached the ambulance, he asked emergency workers to go and rescue his photographer. The crew said they would first take Al-Dahdouh to the hospital and send another ambulance to Abu Daqqa.
However, for hours, emergency workers were unable to reach the bleeding photographer without the approval of the IDF, and Israeli forces even opened fire close to them when workers tried to approach.
“Strength in numbers”
Orly Halpern, a freelance reporter and producer based in Jerusalem, decided to share Abu Daqqa's plight on a WhatsApp group with more than 140 journalists from the Foreign Press Association, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit that represents reporters from more than 30 countries, The Intercept reported. .
Members of the group exchanged contacts with the Israeli army among themselves, as they tried to inform the army that Abu Daqqa needed medical assistance.
Journalists were trying to get a response from the army, and various humanitarian organizations, from the Palestinian Red Crescent to the International Committee of the Red Cross, did the same.
“I thought that if multiple journalists contacted the military, along with the Foreign Press Association, the military might be more pressured to act, especially knowing that we were aware of the situation and that we were going to report on it,” Halpern told The Intercept. .
“I believe there is strength in numbers,” she said.
By evening, Halpern informed the group that the Israeli army had approved the passage of a Palestinian bulldozer.
But as soon as the bulldozer cleared the way to reach Abu Daqqa, he died. About five hours have passed since he was injured in the raid.
“Punishing Palestinian journalists”
Since Abu Daqqa's death, Al Jazeera has been preparing a legal file before the International Criminal Court regarding what the network describes as the “assassination” of its journalist.
Meanwhile, Al-Dahdouh continues to stand firm in his reporting despite the loss of his colleague, his wife, his two sons, his daughter, and his grandson in other Israeli air strikes since October 7.
“Targeting and destroying offices, such as those of Al Jazeera; Targeting Palestinian families, as is the case with my family; And targeting houses, like my house that was destroyed, as there are no houses around it in the first place, so they know that they are targeting the house of the president of the island.
“It is clear that all of this is happening in the context of pressure and punishment to which Palestinian journalists are subjected by the Israeli army.”
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