Al Jazeera’s Samer Abudaqa was ‘targeted’, left to bleed by Israel: Report

The cameraman died despite aid organisations and journalists applying pressure to get him rescued, The Intercept found.

Samer Abudaqa, Al Jazeera’s cameraman who was killed on December 15 in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, died despite an extensive network of humanitarian organisations and fellow journalists applying pressure on Israel to help rescue him, The Intercept has reported.

Abudaqa was left to bleed to death at the Farhana school in Khan Younis, where the air strike hit, as emergency workers were blocked by the Israeli military from reaching the site despite multiple contacts writing to the military for approval, according to the report published on Friday.

“The Israeli military were well aware that an Al Jazeera journalist was lying helpless, The Intercept’s reporting shows, yet it did not allow emergency teams to safely pass for nearly four hours and did not send a bulldozer for over an hour after that,” the report said.

“Much of the evidence points toward a targeted Israeli strike on the Al Jazeera journalists,” it also added.

Abudaqa had been filming at the school earlier with Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, who was also injured in the air strike.