‘It was as if I had been poisoned when I left Gaza’: journalist Wael al-Dahdouh on family loss, survival and finding solidarity

Wael al-Dahdoud, photographed last year, before his injuries forced him to leave Gaza. ‘There is no safe place. Your back is against the wall so all you can do is continue,’ he says. ‘Everyone pays the price, but you must continue.’ Photograph: Steffen Roth/The Guardian

Purpose was never something Wael al-Dahdouh struggled with. Even when struck by personal tragedies, the Palestinian journalist would take his place in front of Al Jazeera’s cameras to report the news from Gaza.

He returned to work almost immediately after his wife, two of his children and his toddler grandson were killed by an Israeli airstrike in October 2023. He showed the same determination seven weeks later when he was himself injured, and his friend and colleague Samer Abu Daqqa killed, as they reported on the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on a school.