Gaza-based CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman said nine of his relatives were killed by an Israeli airstrike Sunday, the same day that another airstrike obliterated his childhood home.
Dahman escaped to Egypt prior to the recent bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Defense Forces. The 36-year-old journalist had been reporting from Gaza for over a month following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack before evacuating with his pregnant wife and children.
“I will never be able to forget every stone and corner of the house in which I was born and raised and in which my children were born,” Dahman told CNN on Monday.
“They were extremely peaceful and simple people, and their entire lives were devoted solely to work and raising their sons and daughters,” Dahman continued. “They have no affiliation with any organization or group… Pray to God to have mercy on them all.”
The airstrike hit a building on Sunday in which his aunt lived in Beit Lahia, according to CNN. Among those killed in the strike included Dahman’s uncle, the uncle’s wife, daughter, and two grandchildren, as well as his aunt, her husband, and two children. At least two other relatives were said to be critically injured, and others are feared to be still stuck underneath the destruction.
In a video posted on social media, smoke is seen rising from the obliterated building, which has been reduced to rubble.
Just before the fatal strike, Dahman was informed that his family’s home in Gaza City was destroyed in another Israeli strike: “Unfortunately, I left all my memories, my belongings, and the gifts that my bosses sent me at work in this house, all of which were lost under the rubble now,” he said.
As of Monday, at least 63 journalists and media personnel have been killed since war broke out between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
