Know Their Names: Palestinian Journalists Killed by Israel in Gaza | Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Ismail’s last message to the world
Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 31, 2024. The journalists were killed when their car was hit in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, initial information said.
Ismail and Rami were wearing media vests and had identification marks on their car when they were attacked.
Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif was at the hospital where the bodies of his two colleagues were brought.
“Ismail conveyed the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres they committed [Israeli] occupation against innocent people in Gaza,” he said.
“The feeling – there are no words to describe what happened.”
Al-Ghoul is one of several Al Jazeera journalists who have lost their lives covering the war. Several of them lost family members to Israeli attacks. The tragedy of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza City bureau chief, particularly highlights the devastation faced by many Palestinian journalists in the line of duty while having to report on killings too close to home.
Just a few weeks after the start of the war, Dahdouh was informed live on air that his wife, seven-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, along with other family members.
Another son, Hamza, who was also a reporter for Al Jazeera, was killed in a drone strike in January 2024.
In total, at least 192 journalists and 25 female journalists were killed by December 25.
Half of the female journalists were from Gaza City, while 64 percent of all media workers killed were from Gaza City and North Gaza.
About 36 percent of journalists killed so far were from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.
