Thirty-year-old camera operator Hussam al-Dabbaka, a father of two who worked as a freelancer for the Islamic Jihad-owned Al-Quds Al-Youm satellite channel, was killed along with several family members in an Israeli airstrike on August 22, 2024, at his family’s home in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to news reports and several people who spoke to CPJ.
Al-Dabbaka’s friend. journalist Walid Misleh, told CPJ via messaging app that “Israeli warplanes hit Hussam’s family home … without any prior warning, killing him, his wife, their two children, and two other relatives, in addition to wounding four others.”
CPJ emailed the Israel Defense Forces’ North America Media Desk in late September 2024, asking for comment on the killing of al-Dabbaka. In an exchange that followed, the IDF asked CPJ for the journalists’ IDs and "relevant coordinates," which CPJ explained it could not provide due to research limitations. The IDF then said it could not fully address CPJ’s inquiry due to a lack of "sufficient details." The IDF said it takes "all operationally feasible measures" to prevent harm to journalists and other civilians, asserting that "many" on CPJ’s list were Hamas members and therefore lawful targets, but did not name the journalists or provide evidence they were Hamas fighters.