It was about 3pm on 9 October when a small group of Al Jazeera journalists arrived at the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The team say they were reporting on the displacement of Palestinian families after Israel launched its third offensive on the area, turning it into an unrecognisable wasteland of rubble.
Among them was the cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi, who moved ahead and began recording as his team set up their equipment. “At the time, none of us were aware that the IDF was close by,” says the 25-year-old from his bed at al-Helou hospital in Gaza. “But suddenly, the sound of gunfire surrounded us.”
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There is a war on journalists raging across the world. According to the United Nations, at least 68 journalists were killed while reporting last year, the majority of them in conflict zones.
The war in Gaza has seen a sharp rise in the number of journalists killed while reporting war, with the Committee to Protect Journalists stating that at least 160 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon since the war began in October 2023, making it the most deadly period for journalists since the press freedom organisation began gathering data in 1992.
Under fire, a series launched through the Guardian’s Rights and Freedom project, tells the stories of some of those who have lost their lives or been critically injured while reporting on conflicts around the world.
At a time when press freedom is facing a barrage of attacks on multiple fronts, it has never been more important for journalists to be able to work freely and safely, and for the protections they are granted under international human rights laws to be respected and defended.
As the journalists ran for cover, they say an Israeli drone hovered above and began to follow them. Wahidi does not remember what happened next but video footage from the day shows him lying face down on the ground, sprawled along a pavement in a blue press vest, as his colleagues – unable to reach him – desperately call his name.
The Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif was present during the attack and recalls the harrowing moment Wahidi was hit. “We were in the al-Saftawi area when the drone began firing at us,” he says. “We sprinted, trying to escape it but it followed us relentlessly and with precision. Then suddenly Fadi collapsed – we thought he had been killed.”
Wahidi was wounded only half a kilometre from Jabaliya’s al-Awda hospital but due to Israel’s siege of the health centre, his colleagues were forced to transport him to a hospital farther away. “There were no ambulances available, so we had to drive him quickly in our broadcast vehicle while he bled,” says Sharif.
Wahidi later awoke in critical condition and learned he had been shot in the neck, causing severe damage to his vertebrae and spinal cord; resulting in serious physical, neurological and respiratory injuries. Doctors at the hospital said they did not have the expertise or equipment to treat him and were only able to stop the bleeding. A few days later, he slipped into a coma for two weeks.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), more than 145 journalists have been killed by the IDF in Gaza since the start of the war, with 35 of them working at the time of their deaths. In a new report, it describes Israel’s killing of reporters in Gaza as an “unprecedented bloodbath”.
Since October, the hospital has made repeated pleas for Wahidi to be allowed to leave Gaza to receive medical treatment abroad as resources on-site are insufficient to treat his injuries.
In October, the RSF, along with other press freedom organisations, demanded that Israel allow the medical evacuation of Wahidi and other injured journalists trapped in Gaza.
UN human rights experts have also called for Wahidi’s urgent medical evacuation, stating that the denial of medical evacuation or delays in approving requests seemed to be part of the “pattern of persecution” by Israel on journalists in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Almost three months on, Wahidi’s condition has deteriorated. Doctors have been unable to prevent paralysis and there have been further complications due to his shattered bones and damage to his arteries and veins. He also suffers acute hypotension, which could lead to another coma or sudden cardiac arrest.
“Fadi is now fighting for his life. New issues keep arising and his pain grows worse,” says a nurse, Anas al-Shembari. “He is unable to move and needs medications that are not available here in Gaza.”
Sitting beside his hospital bed, his mother, Hiba al-Wahidi, weeps as she tends to her son. “Fadi is my first-born and the most gentle of all my children,” she says. “Even while reporting in a war zone, he was always checking in to see if we were OK. But now my poor boy is slowly dying and there is nothing we can do for him.”
Dr Mosab Nasser, chief executive of FAJR Scientific, a medical non-profit organisation in the US, has been trying to evacuate Wahidi but his requests have so far been denied without explanation. “Despite these endeavours, the possibility of evacuating Fadi remains on hold due to a lack of Israeli authorisation for his safe passage,” he says. “The life of this young journalist is at imminent risk and swift action is urgently needed to prevent further tragedy.”
Cogat, the Israeli military body in Gaza responsible for issuing permits to travel abroad, and the Israel Defense Forces did not respond to requests for comment.
“It has been almost three months that I’ve been confined to this deathbed, unable to move or leave,” says Wahidi. “I just lie here all day staring up at the ceiling.
“How I wish I could see the sun or sky – even just for a brief moment. But I can’t even sit up or hold a phone when I want to look at something on it – the pain is too overwhelming.”
