Kevin Flower
Wednesday November 1, 2023
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of a strike in Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday. Anas al-Shareef/Reuters
Al Jazeera said one of its employees lost 19 members of his family in the Israeli airstrike on the Jabalya refugee camp on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Qatari-funded news network condemned what it called a “heinous and indiscriminate Israeli bombing” that killed 19 family members of their satellite engineer, Mohamed Abu Al-Qumsan.
Al-Qumsan lost his father, two sisters, eight nephews and nieces, his brother, his brother’s wife and their four children, his sister-in-law, and one uncle in the bombing that the news network called an “unforgivable act."
Al Jazeera appealed to the international community to address the "grave injustice with utmost urgency" for the family of Al-Qumsan and other Gazan civilians.
The Israeli strike in the densely populated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed a large number of people Tuesday and left catastrophic damage, according to eyewitnesses and medics in the enclave.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus claimed the strike was targeting a Hamas commander hiding in an underground bunker and that when the complex imploded it possibly collapsed nearby buildings.
Last week, Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Al Dahdouh lost his wife, son, daughter, and grandson in what the network said was an airstrike that hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza where the family was taking shelter after being displaced.
At least 31 journalists have been killed in Israel-Gaza conflict since October 7, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Among them are 26 Palestinians, four Israelis, and one Lebanese as of October 31.