Nidal Al-Wahidi, a cameraman and photographer in Gaza for the Nablus-based Palestinian broadcaster An-Najah Nbc Channel, went missing near the Erez crossing, known in Gaza as the Beit Hanoun crossing, while reporting on Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 according to news reports, the Palestinian press freedom organization MADA, and a video interview with his father, Suhail Al-Wahidi, on Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera Mubasher.
In the interview, which aired on March 31, 2024, Suhail Al-Wahidi said that his son put on his journalism gear the morning of October 7, went to cover the attack, and has not been heard from since. He said that nobody knows whether his son is dead or alive and that he has contacted Israeli authorities to learn whether his son was arrested but he received no reply.
On October 7, Al-Wahidi tweeted photographs of young Palestinian men and teenagers on a Humvee. He also posted a tweet saying that he had asked a masked man if he could take a picture of him and the man told him to take pictures of the “guys on the other side of the border.” CPJ was unable to determine if Al-Wahidi crossed into Israel.
Al-Wahidi’s brother, Yasser Al-Wahidi, told SKeyes that three days after his brother went missing the family saw a video circulating on social media of a man shown from behind being arrested by people wearing Israeli military and police uniforms, and that they believe that it may be Al-Wahidi.
“The video doesn’t show his face, but his back, but we as a family are 80% certain that whoever appears on that video is Nidal,” he told SKeyes. CPJ was unable to verify the contents of the video.
HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization, as well as other groups on October 23 petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to force Israeli authorities to reveal information about Gazans suspected to have been detained by Israel since October 7, including Al-Wahidi and another journalist who went missing the same day, Haitham Abdelwahid.
According to a translation of the court ruling, which CPJ has reviewed, the High Court of Justice on October 31 rejected the petition on the grounds that HaMoked was acting on behalf of the journalists’ work colleagues rather than on behalf of family members, even though the ruling acknowledges that the families of the missing journalists joined the petition at a later date. The court also rejected the petition because it said the military order cited by HaMoked as a legal precedent for the disclosure of information to detainees’ relatives was applicable in the West Bank but not in Gaza. It also said that authorities are not legally obligated to provide information to relatives of people detained during hostilities.
The Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.