Wael al-Dahdouh, the Gaza bureau chief of Al Jazeera, has left the besieged Palestinian territory after losing his wife, four children, a grandson and a colleague in the ongoing Israeli offensive.
Scenes of Dahdouh mourning his family and fleeing on foot from Gaza City have been broadcast globally over the weeks since war erupted between Hamas militants and Israel on October 7.
Dahdouh told AFP that he crossed the Rafah border post with Egypt on Tuesday, along with a relative, and plans to travel to Qatar for medical treatment. He was wounded in an Israeli strike last month that killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and several others.
The 53-year-old journalist has been covering the war between Hamas and Israel since it broke out on October 7, and his harrowing images of grief and survival have been seen by millions around the world.
He lost his wife, two children and a grandson in a bombing of Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza in October, and his eldest son in a strike on a car in Rafah this month. Four of his surviving children crossed into Egypt last week.
Dahdouh is one of at least 82 journalists who have been killed in the conflict, 75 of them in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The Egyptian journalists' syndicate said it had contacted Dahdouh after he left Gaza and thanked the authorities for facilitating his exit.
The war has also claimed the lives of more than 24,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and more than 1,100 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to official sources.
