Amnesty International Australia has awarded Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh, its Human Rights Defender Award, recognising his reporting throughout Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The veteran journalist was honoured at the organisation’s annual ceremony, which highlights reporters who have made major contributions to human rights journalism worldwide.
Al-Dahdouh left Gaza in January to receive medical treatment in Qatar after being injured in an Israeli air strike. Amnesty said he was selected for the 2025 award for his “commitment to documenting war crimes” and his “extraordinary steadfastness and courage”.
In a statement released through Amnesty, he said the award represents “those who still carry on this mission under unimaginable circumstances inside the Gaza Strip”.
He added that it also pays tribute to “those who gave their lives for the truth and for the noble humanitarian mission, whether they were colleagues, family members or loved ones”.
Al-Dahdouh has become one of the most recognisable Palestinian journalists of the Gaza genocide.
Al-Dahdouh’s son Hamza, a 27-year-old Palestinian journalist and cameraman who worked with Al Jazeera in Gaza, was killed on 7 January 2024 in a targeted Israeli drone strike on the car he was travelling in near Khan Younis while on assignment with other journalists.
His wife, two other children, grandson and a number of colleagues and friends, including Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa were also killed by Israel.
Amnesty’s spokesperson on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Mohamed Duar, warned that Israel continues to target Palestinian journalists and praised al-Dahdouh’s determination to keep telling Gaza’s stories.
“Palestinian journalists in Gaza are working in the most dangerous conditions on Earth, with over 270 journalists having paid the ultimate price,” Duar said. “They have been courageously working at great risk to show the world what is happening inside Gaza and to demand accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.”
He said Amnesty was proud to honour al-Dahdouh for his lifelong reporting from Gaza and the wider region, noting that he had exposed “the brutality of Israel’s genocide, unlawful military occupation, apartheid regime and its deliberate strategy of targeting and silencing journalists and their families”.
Al-Dahdouh has earned broad respect in Palestine and internationally for his courageous and professional reporting even amid profound personal loss.
After losing his son Hamza, also a journalist with Al Jazeera, who was killed alongside colleague Mustafa Thurayya when their car was targeted in an Israeli strike in Rafah, al-Dahdouh described this as “the price of carrying the truth”, adding that “we do not have the luxury of stopping, even when the pain is unbearable”.
Israel responsible for half the violent deaths of journalists worldwide
The ceremony also commemorated slain journalist Anas al-Sharif, the organisation’s 2024 Human Rights Defender Award recipient, who was killed in an Israeli attack in August.
Al-Dahdouh’s recognition came as new figures from Reporters Without Borders showed that Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed worldwide this year.
The group reported that 29 Palestinian journalists were killed in Gaza in 2025. RSF said 67 journalists have been killed globally this year, compared with 66 in 2024.
Since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, almost 220 journalists have been killed, making Israel the world’s deadliest country for journalists for the third consecutive year.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) reported 57 violations and assaults carried out by Israeli forces and illegal settlers against journalists in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in November.
The PJS Committee on Press Freedoms said the incidents reflected “dangerous patterns directly targeting journalistic work and endangering journalists’ lives”.
Journalists and media organisations worldwide, including The New Arab, have continued to call for stronger international pressure on Israel to halt its daily attacks, ensure protection for Palestinian journalists, and allow media access to Gaza.
