Mourners gathered in central Gaza on Thursday to bury Mohammed Wishah, an Al Jazeera journalist killed by an Israeli drone strike on Wednesday.
Friends, family, and colleagues joined a funeral procession that began at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah. The crowd carried Wishah’s body to the Bureij refugee camp for burial.
During the ceremony, mourners placed the journalist's body at the exact location where he previously delivered live reports for Al Jazeera Mubasher.
Pattern of targeting
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, held a press conference during the funeral to condemn the strike.
“The assassination of Wishah is a link in a chain of ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian journalistic family,” al-Thawabta said.
He stated that 262 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023. Al-Thawabta argued that these attacks are a deliberate policy to silence witnesses and prevent the transmission of images to the world.
Wishah’s family shared details of his final hours, noting they had shared a meal just before he left for his assignment. Contact with the reporter was lost shortly after, until his death was confirmed.
Al Jazeera Media Network issued a statement calling the killing a “heavens crime” and a flagrant violation of international law.
The network held Israeli forces fully responsible, describing the attack as part of a systematic effort to intimidate media workers.
Since the start of the war, Israeli forces have killed 12 Al Jazeera journalists and media workers in Gaza, according to the network.
