Journalist Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday that targeted a team of journalists west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Journalist Mustafa Tharia was also killed by the missile from an Israeli drone that targeted the car they were traveling in near the Al-Mawasi area in the southwestern Gaza Strip, according an Al Jazeera correspondent.
The correspondent explained that the Israeli forces targeted Hamza and a group of journalists while they were reporting from an area where civilians had sought refuge from Israeli strikes.
Hamza was the eldest and the last surviving son of Wael Al-Dahdouh, whose other children, along with his wife and grandson, were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house they had sought refuge in at the Nuseirat camp.
A day before his death, Hamza had dedicated an Instagram to his father in which he praised his patience through the adversity he had faced. The post is now being widely shared on social media.
The incident is seen a retaliatory move from Israel against the Al Jazeera journalist and his network, whose journalists are among the 109 journalists that Israel killed in Gaza since 7 October.
“Hamza was everything to me, the eldest boy, he was the soul of my soul… these are the tears of parting and loss, the tears of humanity,” he said, according to Al Jazeera.
Israel has so far killed 22,835 and injured 58,416 people in Gaza.