Family of slain Al Jazeera cameraman plans to file lawsuit against Israel at lCC

DUBAI: The son of Palestinian cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who was killed in the Gaza Strip while reporting for Al Jazeera TV network, said his family is planning to file a lawsuit before the International Criminal Court against Israel.

Yazan Abu Daqqa said he was going to “demand his father’s right and file a lawsuit before the ICC and I need your support on that,” during an interview with the network aired Friday night.

Speaking from Belgium, Yazan said Israeli forces deliberately targeted his father, who was “doing his job as a journalist, conveying his message to the world.”

Abu Daqqa was killed Friday while reporting at a school that was hit by an Israeli strike earlier in the day in the south of the besieged territory. He was there alongside the network’s chief Gaza correspondent Wael Dahdouh. 

While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, Al Jazeera said.

Despite being deeply wounded, Dahdouh was able to flee and find medical help. But Abu Daqqa continued to suffer heavy blood loss for several hours after ambulances failed to evacuate him due to destroyed roads. A civil defense crew later found him dead, the network said in a statement. 

“My dad wasn’t a fighter, what did he do?” Yazan said. “He wasn’t carrying a missile, but rather a camera to show people what the occupying Zionists are doing in Gaza.”

The 45-year-old Abu Daqqa, a Khan Younis native, joined Al Jazeera in June 2004, working as both a cameraman and an editor. He leaves behind a daughter and three sons.

Yazan said the last phone call he had with his father was just a day before his death. “He told me to take care of myself and my siblings.”

Dozens of journalists took part in Abu Daqqa's funeral on Saturday. Abu Daqqa's body, bearing his bullet-proof vest and helmet, was carried through a crowd in the city of Khan Yunis before being buried in a grave dug by fellow journalists.

Al Jazeera said it held “Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families.”

Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told a General Assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document (their) crimes and inform the world, the journalists.

“We mourn one of those journalists, Samer Abu Daqqa, wounded in an Israeli drone strike and left to bleed to death for six hours while ambulances were prevented from reaching him,” Mansour added.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel. Fifty-seven Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese journalists have been killed.

(with Agencies)