From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 7, 2024
IDF says two Al Jazeera journalists were killed in car with drone-operating terror operative
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF responds to reports of the deaths of two Palestinian journalists in an Israeli airstrike the Gaza Strip earlier today, saying the pair, working for Al Jazeera, were in a vehicle with a terror operative who was operating a drone.
In response to a query on the matter, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit tells The Times of Israel that a military aircraft “identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft in a way that put IDF forces at risk.”
The IDF says it is aware of “the claim that during the strike two other suspects who were with the terrorist in the same vehicle were hit.”
Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuria, a video stringer for AFP who was also working for the Qatar-based TV outlet, both died in the strike in southern Gaza’s Rafah.
