Mourners have gathered in central Gaza for the funeral of Mohammed Wishah, an Al Jazeera journalist killed in an Israeli drone strike, as the death toll among media workers continues to rise during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Dozens of relatives, friends and colleagues joined the procession on Thursday. The ceremony began at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where mourners paid their final respects before carrying Wishah’s body on their shoulders to the Bureij refugee camp.
Funeral prayers were held at the Grand Mosque before a burial in line with his wishes.
During the ceremony, mourners placed Wishah’s body at the very spot where he had once stood to deliver live reports for Al Jazeera Mubasher, often covering the latest Israeli attacks and the plight of the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.
At a news conference held during the funeral, Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, said the killing formed part of a wider pattern.
“The assassination of Wishah is a link in a chain of ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian journalistic family, within the framework of a deliberate and intentional policy of targeting with premeditation and intent,” he said.
He added that 262 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023, warning that the targeting of reporters aims to silence witnesses.
“The targeting of journalists aims to silence the Palestinian voice, obscure the truth and prevent the transmission of images of crimes to the world,” he said.
Last meal with his son
Family members described the final hours before Wishah’s death. One of his sons told our sister channel, Al Jazeera Arabic, that they had shared a meal just hours before he left for a reporting assignment, after which contact was lost until his killing was confirmed.
Wishah had reported from the field for years and continued working throughout the war despite escalating risks, as Israeli attacks on media workers intensified.
His killing in a drone attack on his car on Wednesday comes amid a sustained assault on journalists in Gaza. It raises serious concerns about the ability of reporters to continue documenting events under constant threat.
Israeli forces have killed 12 Al Jazeera journalists and media workers in Gaza since the war began, including Anas Al-Sharif, Samer Abu Daqqa, Hamza Al-Dahdouh, Muhammad Qreiqeh, Ismail Al-Ghoul, Muhammad Salama, Mohammed Noufal, Ibrahim Al-Zaher, Hussam Shabat, Ahmed Al-Louh, and Rami Al-Rifi.
In a statement, Al Jazeera Media Network described the killing as a “heinous crime”.
The network said the attack forms part of a deliberate effort to intimidate media workers and prevent them from reporting the reality on the ground, calling it a flagrant violation of international law.
It held Israeli forces fully responsible, stating that the killing fits into a broader pattern of systematic attacks on its journalists.