Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent loses 4 family members in an Israeli airstrike
Cairo: Al Jazeera's chief correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Wael Dahdouh, was helping broadcast live images of the besieged territory's night sky when he received the devastating news: His wife, son, and daughter had all been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.
Moments later, the Qatari-based satellite channel switched to footage of Dahdouh entering al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza before giving way to grief as he peered over the body of his dead son.
“They take revenge on us in our children?” he said, kneeling over his son’s bloodied body, still wearing his protective press vest from that day’s work.
Dahdouh’s grandson also was declared dead two hours later, the network reported.
The video was sure to reverberate across the Arab world, where the 53-year-old journalist is well-known as the face of Palestinians during many wars. He is revered in his native Gaza for telling people's stories of suffering and hardship to the outside world.
According to Al Jazeera, Dahdouh's family members were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit Nuseirat Refugee Camp, located in an area of Gaza where the military had encouraged people to go to stay safe. It said a number of other relatives were still missing, and it remained unclear how many others were killed.
Dahdouh’s family were among the more than 1 million Gaza residents displaced by the war, now in its 19th day, and were staying in a house in Nuseirat when the strike hit, the network said.
The Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 Palestinians, Gaza's Health Ministry says. The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll.
The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.
Late Wednesday, Al Jazeera replayed the moment Dahdouh was informed about the deaths. In an audio recording, he is heard picking up a phone and telling a frantic caller multiple times: “Who are you with?”
Earlier, Dahdouh was on air, covering the aftermath of a separate strike that had killed at least 26 people, according to local officials. Throughout the war, Dahdouh has remained in Gaza City, despite Israeli calls for residents to head south ahead of an expected ground offensive.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled to Nuseirat and other locations in central and southern Gaza, believing them to be safer. But Israeli strikes have continued to pound these areas, which are suffering dire shortages of water, medicine and fuel under an Israeli siege.
“This is the safe area which the occupation army talked about, the moral army,” said Dahdouh with bitter sarcasm to a fellow a Al Jazeera reporter at the al-Aqsa hospital.
In a statement, Al Jazeera said Dahdouh’s family's “home was targeted” in an “indiscriminate assault by the Israeli occupation.”
The Israeli army had no immediate comment. It says it strikes only Hamas military targets, but the Palestinians say thousands of civilians have died. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Israel has threatened to shut down Al Jazeera over its coverage of the war. Al Jazeera is a Qatari state-owned media network and is deeply critical of Israel, particularly its treatment of Palestinians.
Over the last week, the gas-rich nation of Qatar has emerged as a key intermediary over the fate of more than 200 hostages captured by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 assault. Qatar has hosted Hamas’ political office in its capital of Doha for over a decade. The capital, Doha, is home to Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader, and also Khaled Mashaal, Haniyeh's predecessor.
Four of the hostages have been released, a mother and daughter on Friday and two more on Monday. In an interview with Sky News this week, Mashaal said all Israeli hostages could be released if Israel stopped its aerial bombardment of Gaza.
The family of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh has been killed in an Israeli attack at the Al Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, where they had forcibly evacuated to shelter from Israeli bombardments ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/ya64Lgunbp
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 25, 2023
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Sheena Bora case: Indrani Mukerjea moves SC, seeks permission to travel abroad
New Delhi, Nov 26: Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea, accused of killing her daughter Sheena Bora, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court ruling denying her to travel abroad.
A special court on July 19 allowed Mukerjea's plea to travel to Spain and the UK for 10 days between intermittent periods over the next three months.
The CBI approached the high court challenging the order passed by the special court but the high court quashed the special court order on September 27.
Mukerjea has now moved the apex court challenging the high court's verdict.
In her plea filed in the top court through advocate Sana Raees Khan, Mukerjea said she was a British citizen, and sought permission to visit Spain and her home country for "making necessary changes and amendments and taking care of pending work which cannot be transacted without her personal presence".
She argued the activation of a digital certificate was a must for all relevant work and administration in Spain and her physical presence was mandatory.
In its verdict, the high court noted Mukerjea wanted to travel abroad on the ground that she was a British national and was required to execute documents regarding her bank account and perform other work in Spain and the UK.
While setting aside the special court's order, the high court said if Mukerjea wished to perform these works from India, the statutory authorities back home would extend her the necessary support with the assistance of Embassy of Spain and the UK.
Mukerjea was arrested in August 2015 after the murder of Bora came to light. In May 2022, she was granted bail by the Supreme Court.
She has denied the allegations.
Bora (24) was allegedly strangled to death in a car by Mukerjea, her then-driver Shyamvar Rai and former husband Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012 in Mumbai. Her body was then burnt in a forest in the neighbouring Raigad district, according to the prosecution.
Bora was Mukerjea's daughter from her previous relationship.
The killing came to light in 2015 when Rai reportedly revealed about it during interrogation by police after his arrest in a separate case registered under the Arms Act.
Mukerjea's ex-husband Peter Mukerjea was also arrested for allegedly being a part of the conspiracy linked to the murder, probed by the CBI.
All the accused are currently out on bail.
