On 2 September at The Conduit in London, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh spoke publicly in the United Kingdom for the first time. He was joined by Ramita Navai, the journalist and filmmaker, and Jon Williams, executive director of the Rory Peck Trust. The event, organised by On Front Line with The Conduit, a London member’s clib, focused on the systematic targeting of journalists in Gaza.
Iain Overton of Action on Armed Violence moderated the discussion.
The context was clear. Reporters Without Borders has reported that more than 210 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the past 23 months, at least 56 of them deliberately targeted. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls it the deadliest conflict for the profession in modern history. Al-Dahdouh has himself lost his wife, daughter, son, grandson and several other relatives in Israeli strikes. He told the London audience: “This has convinced us that there has been a deliberate plan which is part and parcel of the war itself. Foreign journalists are kept out. Local journalists are silenced by being killed.”
He described how the nature of the attacks had changed. “At the beginning of the war, they used to target journalists when they were in their homes with the rest of their families. Now we see them specifically targeting individual journalists at their places of work; outside hospitals, in tents, or in groups clearly marked as press.”
He recalled the killing of his son Hamza in January 2024. “The army spokesman went proudly on television saying they had targeted my family. What has my daughter done, about to start school? What has my infant grandson Adam done? What crime did they commit? First they claimed Hamza launched a drone. Later they called him a terrorist journalist. Independent investigators found no evidence. This is a pattern we have come to expect.”
Al-Dahdouh said that one of the hardest moments was deciding to continue reporting after burying his family. “It was the most difficult decision of my life to bury my family and then stand before the cameras. But I knew I had a duty, to my colleagues and to humanity, to continue.”
He pointed to the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera correspondent killed by a sniper in 2022. “She was a Christian, an American citizen, a professional known to all. She was shot in the only exposed part between her helmet and vest. Those who tried to help her were blocked. Afterwards, the army denied responsibility, then promised an investigation. Nobody was named. Nobody was punished.”
Ramita Navai placed these experiences within a broader pattern. “We know Israel kills witnesses to its crimes, and it has been doing so for decades,” she said. “We know it provides fake evidence to justify killings. And yet we see some media organisations parrot Israeli military statements as fact. This is an abuse of journalistic practice.” She gave the example of Ismail al-Ghoul, killed last year with his camera. “The Israeli army provided a document to prove he was Hamas. But the dates didn’t add up: they claimed he was recruited in 2014 and given a rank in 2007, when he was ten years old.”
Navai argued that Western coverage applied a double standard. “Would Russia be given the same airtime, the same benefit of the doubt, if it killed Ukrainian journalists? Of course not. Yet the BBC and others read out Israeli statements without correction, even when they contradict established evidence. That puts our Palestinian colleagues at greater risk.”
She described how her own documentary, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, was initially approved by the BBC but then pulled. “They told me I would be turned from reporter into a subject, alongside Palestinians, because they feared the optics of an Iranian reporting on Israeli war crimes. That decision speaks volumes about the climate inside our media institutions.”
Jon Williams addressed the wider record of impunity. “CPJ went back 22 years and looked at the deaths of 20 Palestinian journalists, all killed by the IDF. In not one case had anyone been held accountable. And in the 22 months since October the 7th, at least 26 journalists, including Hamza, have been murdered: directly targeted and murdered by Israel.” He added: “The laws of war are clear: murdering a journalist is a war crime. The only justification is if they are combatants directly involved in battle. Not even the IDF says those 26 fit that description. And yet the world continues to stand by and do nothing. Other despots are watching. If those who kill journalists in Gaza are not held accountable, it tells others they too can murder journalists and get away with it. Today it is Gaza. Tomorrow it will be somewhere else.”
The discussion also addressed the role of international media.
Al-Dahdouh said: “What is even more devastating than the bombs is realising that colleagues in the international press did not rise to the occasion. This allows the killings to continue. If it is accepted in Gaza, it will happen elsewhere.”
Navai pointed to what she called “years of Israeli propaganda that has dehumanised Palestinians”, noting that international newsrooms sometimes prefer to interview “a white doctor” about Gaza rather than rely on Palestinian professionals who can describe events themselves.
The panel took place just as a wider campaign was launched. On 1 September more than 150 media outlets from over 50 countries, including Al Jazeera, The Independent, Frankfurter Rundschau and Le Soir, joined a mobilisation coordinated by RSF and Avaaz. The campaign demands the protection and evacuation of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and independent access for foreign press. RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court alleging war crimes against journalists.
Al-Dahdouh concluded by stressing that his work is about mission, not career.
“We are not doing a job for money or fame. We are messengers of the truth. Our work is about telling the story of an entire people; a story written in blood, in the lives of children and women, in homes destroyed and hopes erased. To be silent would be the greater crime.”
The video of the event can be found here:
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