RSF visits Doha to meet with journalists evacuated from Gaza, reaffirms solidarity with Palestinian media
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has visited the Qatari capital, Doha, to meet with Palestinian journalists who were recently evacuated from Gaza and to reaffirm RSF’s support and solidarity with Gaza’s reporters. RSF reiterates its call for their urgent protection.
In recent weeks, and after determined efforts, it was finally possible to arrange the evacuation of several of Gaza’s reporters from the besieged territory, where at least 103 journalists have been killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October, including at least 22 in the course of their work. Jonathan Dagher, the head of RSF’s Middle East desk, and Khaled Drareni, RSF’s North Africa representative, visited Doha from 7 to 9 March to talk with the newly evacuated journalists about the current conditions for journalists and media in Gaza and to express RSF’s support.
“As Doha is currently the place where most Gazan journalists have found a refuge, it was important for RSF to be with them there. We met with them to hear their accounts of the atrocities they have experienced as reporters since 7 October. Gaza's journalists, both inside and outside the enclave, continue to demonstrate bravery and professionalism in the face of violence. We affirm our support for them and call for their protection.
Among the journalists met by RSF was Ola Al Zaanoon, RSF's Gaza correspondent, who was amongst those evacuated from Gaza and who found refuge in Doha. She was able to leave Gaza on 15 February after covering the war for five months, during which she saw and personally experienced the violence inflicted on journalists.
In Doha, RSF also met and talked with Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, who was wounded on 15 December by an Israeli strike that killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa.
"Journalists have had to endure great hardships since the start of this terrible war being waged against Gaza,” Dahdouh told RSF. “The Israeli forces are trying suppress the truth and prevent journalists from shedding light on what is happening there.”
Dahdouh’s son, Al Jazeera reporter Hamza Dahdouh, was himself killed in a strike on his car in Rafah on 7 January, while a strike on 20 November killed Dahdouh’s wife, two of his children and one of his grandchildren.
In Doha, where he has received medical attention, Dahdouh expressed his determination to keep working as a journalist. “Despite our forced exile, our mission continues, wherever we happen to be,” he said.
RSF has been supporting Gaza’s journalists since the start of the war. Together with its local partner, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), RSF has installed equipped tents in Gaza for journalists to work in, and has supplied journalists with professional equipment and basic survival products, especially for women journalists.
