Al Jazeera Journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh Slammed CNN For Asking Him If He Wishes Hamas Didn’t Commit Oct. 7
Daddouh quickly replied that to summarize the Palestinian cause in one event or date like Oct. 7 is “unjust, unfair and a distortion of facts.”
A CNN reporter tried to press Al Jazeera bureau chief in Gaza Wael Al-Dahdouh to condemn Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 but he explained how the Oct. 7 attack happened because of Israel’s occupation.
On Sept. 14, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour asked him if he wished that “Hamas had not committed Oct. 7.”
Daddouh quickly replied that to summarize the Palestinian cause in one event or date like Oct. 7 is “unjust, unfair and a distortion of facts.”
Dahdouh said it all goes back to Israel’s occupation of Palestine in 1948 adding that Palestinians' lives weren’t any better before Oct. 7, 2023, nor in Gaza, where people have endured at least five wars before or in the Occupied territories, where Palestinians are subjected to violence by Israeli forces and settlers.
“Ultimately, this is the true reality, what I, you and all the people must see,” he said.
He added that even before Oct. 7 he was deprived of traveling outside Gaza and his children like the rest of the people in Gaza, couldn’t travel to study outside Gaza.
Dahdouh said he thought he would be protected as a journalist during Israel’s genocide in Gaza due to his known integrity and professionalism and wouldn’t be subjected to slander but he paid a heavy price for this war he was paying even before.
The 53-year-old had kept reporting in Gaza even after he was wounded by an Israeli airstrike in December 2024, that killed his cameraman, Samer Abudaqa, while they were reporting in southern Gaza.
In October 2024, Dahdouh lost four family members, including his wife Amna, grandchild Adam, 15-year-old son Mahmoud, and seven-year-old daughter Sham, in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat refugee camp.
His 27-year-old son, Hamza, also a journalist, was killed in an Israeli attack earlier in January alongside his colleague Mustafa Thuraya while returning from a reporting assignment in Rafah.
The link to this part of the interview is now removed or broken on CNN website.
Israel has now killed more than 65,062 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and is now pounding Gaza City with bombs as it began its full take over of the city.
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