Ismail’s final message to the world

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail Al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli airstrike on July 31, 2024. Initial information.

Ismail and Rami were wearing media vests and had identifying markings on their car when they were attacked.

Al Jazeera reporter Anas Sharif was at the hospital where the bodies of two of his colleagues were being brought.

“Ismail conveyed the pain of displaced Palestinians, the pain of the injured and the massacre of innocent people in Gaza by the (Israeli) occupation,” he said.

“The feeling – there are no words to describe what happened.”

Al Ghor was one of several Al Jazeera journalists who died while covering the war. Several others have lost family members in Israeli attacks. The tragedy of Al Jazeera’s Gaza City bureau chief, Wal al-Dadouh, in particular highlights the devastation many Palestinian journalists face in carrying out their duties while having to report on killings too close to home.

Weeks after the war began, Dadouh learned live on air that an Israeli airstrike on the Nuserat refugee camp had killed his wife, 7-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son, among other family members.

Another son, Hamza, also a journalist for Al Jazeera, was killed in a drone strike in January 2024.

As of December 25, a total of at least 192 male journalists and 25 female journalists had been killed.

Half of the female journalists were from Gaza City, while 64% of the killed media workers were from Gaza City and North Gaza.

About 36% of the journalists killed so far were from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.