Ismail’s last message to the world

Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi were killed in an Israeli air attack on July 31, 2024. The reporters were killed when their car was hit in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, according to initial information.

Ismail and Rami were wearing media vests, and there were identifying signs on their car when they were attacked.

Al Jazeera’s Anas Al-Sharif was at the hospital where the bodies of his two colleagues were brought.

“Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza,” he said.

“The feeling – no words can describe what happened.”

[BELOW: al- in his name should be lowercase]

Al-Ghoul is among several Al Jazeera journalists who have lost their lives covering the war. Several more have lost family members to Israeli strikes. The tragedy of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza City, particularly highlights the devastation many Palestinian journalists have faced doing their duty while having to report killings far too close to home.

Just weeks after the start of the war, Dahdouh was informed while live on air that an Israeli air attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp had killed his wife, seven-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son along with other family members.

Another son, Hamza, who was also an Al Jazeera reporter, was killed in a drone attack in January 2024.

In all, at least 192 male and 25 female journalists had been killed by December 25.

Half of the female journalists were from Gaza City while 64 percent of all media workers killed were from Gaza City and North Gaza.

About 36 percent of the journalists killed so far have been from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.