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No Safe Zones: How Fadi Al-Wahidi Got Shot in the Neck While Wearing a Press Vest
On October 9, 2024, Fadi Al-Wahidi was reporting alongside a crew of journalists from Al Jazeera, Al Araby TV, and others, in the Al Saftawi area near Jabalia, when what they claim was an “Israeli quadcopter” initiated a chase that ended with Al-Wahidi being shot in the neck. Forbidden Stories and its partners reconstructed the event that has paralyzed both of his legs.
- Footage obtained exclusively by the Gaza Project shows Al-Wahidi running away from what, according to his own testimony and that of eyewitnesses, were the first shots targeting the crew.
- Medical reports from hospitals in Gaza and Egypt describe a “severe spinal injury” caused by a bullet that penetrated his neck. A forensic expert’s analysis indicates the shot was fired from an elevated position.
- Al-Wahidi was reporting from an area that was not included among the “evacuation zones” designated by the Israeli army for that day.
- The Israeli Ministry of Defense refused multiple requests to evacuate Al-Wahidi and his mother, who had to wait for 122 days to leave Gaza. They did not respond to our specific questions about this case.
By Sofía Álvarez Jurado
March 27, 2025
Additional reporting by:
Anouk Aflalo Doré, Frédéric Métézeau, Mariana Abreu, Youssr Youssef, Samer Shalabi (Forbidden Stories), Farah Jallad, Hoda Osman, Zarifa Abou Qoura (ARIJ), Carlos Gonzales (Bellingcat), Luisa Hommerich, Nicolás Pablo Grone, Yassin Musharbash (Die Zeit)
On January 2, 2025, Fadi Al-Wahidi would have celebrated his 25th birthday in the Gaza Strip, surrounded by family, friends, and colleagues like Anas Al-Sharif of Al Jazeera. He would likely have spent the day as he had for the past year – tirelessly documenting the destruction of his hometown, Jabalia.
All of this might have happened had he not been shot in the neck during an assignment in early October, while clearly identified as a journalist. Following the attack, both of his legs remain paralyzed.
“It was direct shooting,” he told Forbidden Stories in an interview from his hospital bed in Gaza during which he lost consciousness four times.
In lieu of a celebration with his friends and colleagues, this message was published on his Instagram account to mark his birthday: “I never imagined that I would welcome a new year of my life ‘paralyzed,’ unable to stand on my own feet … 85 days have passed- each day as long as a thousand years.”
Fadi Al-Wahidi and Anas Al-Sharif, friends and Al Jazeera colleagues, before Al-Wahidi’s injury (left), and after (right). (Credit: Own elaboration, using images shared by Anas Al-Sharif on Twitter (X).
The morning of October 8, 2024, the world held its breath watching Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the government and people of Lebanon. In English, he vowed that the country would face “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza” if they did not rise up against Hezbollah.
The day after, a crew of journalists, including Al-Wahidi and Al-Sharif, was on the ground reporting on the fifth consecutive day of the Israeli 162nd Division’s bombardment and ground offensive in Jabalia.
The reporters made their way to Al Saftawi zone, “knowing that it was a safe area, and that people were fleeing from the northern Gaza Strip to the west of Gaza City,” Al-Wahidi said. They wanted to report on the displacement of civilians in this area.
A day prior to the attack, the Israeli Army had published a map on social media announcing that it was “conducting forceful operation in Jabalia” and asking residents to evacuate.
The color-coded map indicated which areas were facing intense fire and were to be evacuated (shown in red in the image below, respecting the original map’s color codes).
Explainer showing how Fadi Al-Wahidi was reporting from an area that was not signaled as an “evacuation area” by the Israeli Army for October 9, 2024. (Credit: Composite created using satellite imagery from Google Earth and a map published by the Israeli Army on Twitter (X).
By using geolocation tools, Forbidden Stories and its partners confirmed that Al-Wahidi and the group of journalists, while reporting on the army’s advance near the border, were still located in an area that was not designated as an “evacuation” zone at the moment of the attack (Their location is highlighted in the map above. It can be seen included among the yellow areas.)
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Chronology of an attack: The events of October 9 in Northern Gaza
Al-Wahidi’s last Instagram post before he was attacked was published by noon Palestinian time. Filmed in Jabalia’s Abu Sharkh roundabout, it shows civilians running away among the rubble, with the sound of constant gunfire in the background.
Fadi Al-Wahidi’s posts on Instagram (left) and Anas Al-Sharif’s posts on Twitter (X) (right) during the morning of October 9, 2024, prior to the attack. (Credit: Composite created using images from the social media profiles of Fadi Al-Wahidi and Anas Al-Sharif).
“From the closest point of the occupation army’s incursion, the situation is dire,” reads the caption.
Roughly ten minutes later, Al-Sharif posted a video on Twitter reflecting a very similar situation. “Just moments ago, while conducting our journalistic duties, we came under fire from Israeli drones. Additionally, anyone attempting to leave the camp was targeted,” he wrote.
In the afternoon, the team of journalists recall having headed to Al Saftawi, the neighborhood that separates Gaza City from Northern Gaza (Jabalia).
One of the journalists of this group was Islam Bader of Al Araby TV.
When asked whether they were visibly identified as journalists, Bader told Forbidden Stories and its partners that the majority of them were wearing press jackets at the moment. This is evident in numerous social media posts shared by the crew, where they documented their work in near real-time.
In all the videos released that day, Al-Wahidi is consistently seen wearing a white-and-blue striped shirt with a press vest over it—including in the footage captured just before the attack and immediately after, as he lies on the ground.
Additionally, footage from Al Araby and Al Jazeera that circulated later show how journalistic equipment (including large TV antennas) was visibly set around the group.
Just moments before 4:53 p.m. (according to metadata from a recovered video documenting the immediate aftermath of the attack), Al-Wahidi recorded one last video, which never made it onto his social media.
In the footage, viewers witness events from the journalist’s perspective, as he and his colleagues appear to be running away from something that our consortium was unable to positively identify.
However, Al-Wahidi can be seen running for 16 seconds before the recording abruptly ends. At that moment, he was shot in the neck and collapsed.
Sequence showing the attack against Fadi Al-Wahidi, including the moments right before, as well as the evacuation right after he was shot. (Credit: Composite created using footage from various phones and satellite imagery from Google Earth).
Footage recorded by his colleagues in the immediate aftermath of the strike quickly spread across the internet.
In the video, Al-Wahidi lies motionless, his face pressed against the concrete. The word “PRESS” is clearly visible on his flak jacket.
On social media, users soon compared this moment to the aftermath of the attack that took the life of renowned journalist Shireen Abu Akleh of Al Jazeera, while on assignment in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on May 11, 2022 [see 1, 2].
The medical report written at Al-Shifa Hospital, which our consortium accessed exclusively, reflects that Al-Wahidi was examined at 5:32 p.m. Palestinian time, and that he suffered a severe spinal injury when a projectile penetrated his neck, fracturing two vertebrae in his upper back and compressing his spinal cord, resulting in the paralysis of both legs.
Dr. Ramy Al-Sousy, who originally performed surgery on Al-Wahidi, described his injury as caused by a single bullet that entered the front of his neck above his press vest and exited through his back.
Jinan Khatib, a sworn forensic expert accredited by the Lebanese Ministry of Justice, analysed imagery of the wounds of Al-Wahidi and told our consortium that one could “reasonably conclude that the bullet was fired from a higher level in relation to the victim.”
“We Have Become Familiar With That Sound”
“Even now in my ears, the bullets are bouncing off the door next to me, into the walls next to me,” Al-Wahidi said from his hospital bed.
“I was filming to prepare a report for my colleague Anas Al-Sharif at that moment,” he told Forbidden Stories. “While we were here, we were surprised by a drone [that] appeared and fired directly at us.”
When asked about the precise moment that Al-Wahidi was attacked, Islam Bader was confident in his answer.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, it came from a quadcopter, because we were not within the direct line of fire [of the Israeli Army],” he said. “Why didn’t we document it? Because the quadcopter is a more deadly tool—no one dares to raise a camera, as you never know where it might strike next.”
“Throughout this war, we’ve become familiar with that sound, learning to distinguish it from everything else,” he said. Journalist Mohammed Shaheen, who was also present at the scene, said that the shots came from a drone. He said that drones “fire automatically, unlike a sniper, who shoots intermittently.”
Imam Badr, another journalist who witnessed the attack, recalled seeing “a surveillance drone belonging to the [Israeli] army, which hovered for about five minutes before disappearing. About two minutes later, intense gunfire erupted toward us. Fadi was injured during this.”
When asked about the potential use of sniper drones in Gaza, James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at Cornell University, told our consortium that “the technology exists and will likely be deployed by a nation-state—or even a non-state actor—in the future.” However, he emphasized that without combat footage, he could not confirm their use.
A 2017 article by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that weaponized drones were nearing operational trials with the Israeli Army at the time. It also noted that two trials were underway among ground forces, one of which involved an unmanned armed drone.
All eyewitnesses said that what attacked Al-Wahidi was a quadcopter or sniper drone. Our consortium was unable to determine whether the shot originated from a drone, a soldier, or another source.
A former Israeli officer who fought in Gaza told our consortium that “assuming someone saw a drone and then heard gunshots, it is safer to assume that there were two units, or two teams from the same unit, working in tandem: the drone that is watching and surveilling and something else shooting.”
A returning non-commissioned officer from the battlefield confirmed to Forbidden Stories the general use of this “dual method,” though he did not claim knowledge of this specific event.
The Israeli Army did not respond to our specific questions regarding the use of drones in Gaza or the case of Al-Wahidi. However, they said that they rejected “outright the allegation of a systemic attack on journalists,” and that they could not address “operational directives and regulations as they are classified.”
Regarding individuals, they maintain that their forces “only strike members of organized armed groups and individuals directly participating in hostilities,” and that they did not “deliberately target journalists as such.”
In May 2024, The France 24 Observers (members of our consortium) asked the Israeli Army if they could confirm the use of “sniper drones in Gaza, quadcopters or mini drones equipped with light firearms,” to which they replied “Unfortunately, this is not something we can discuss.”
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An impossible evacuation: 122 Days of Waiting and a Refusal for “Security Reasons”
After the attack, Al-Wahidi was transferred between different Gazan hospitals at least three times, due to severe shortages of medical supplies and the lack of necessary treatment.
By his side through it all is his mother, Hiba Al-Wahidi, who has refused to be parted from him.
“We were originally displaced from the north to western Gaza under the most difficult conditions, as I was sick as well, so my treatment was not available,” she told Forbidden Stories.
Hiba Al-Wahidi (left) near her son, during the interview with our consortium in his hospital room in Gaza, in January 2025. (Credit: Forbidden Stories).
On November 25, 2024, UN human rights experts Irene Khan, Francesca Albanese and Tlaleng Mofokeng called for the urgent medical evacuation of Al-Wahidi, highlighting that “Israel has an obligation under international law to facilitate that right.”
Multiple requests were submitted by different hospitals and organizations for Al-Wahidi’s evacuation, but all of them were denied by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) – the Israeli Ministry of Defense unit responsible for coordination between Israel and Gaza.
Fadi’s request was supported by Tel Aviv-based Israeli human rights organization Gisha (Hebrew for “access” or “approach”), which uses “legal and public advocacy to promote the right to freedom of movement, mainly for residents of Gaza”, according to its executive director, Tania Hary.
On December 19, 2024, they submitted an urgent request to the Israeli authorities, highlighting that if they didn’t “arrange the departure of [their] client and his mother as soon as possible, you will cause serious damage”
They did not get a reply until almost a month later, on January 13, 2025. In it, COGAT denied the request, arguing that Al-Wahidi’s evacuation was blocked for security reasons, adding no further explanation.
But on January 15, 2025, after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Al-Sharif posted a video on social media in which he and other colleagues called Al-Wahidi with good news. In the video, Al-Wahidi can be seen smiling and shaking his hand, before being interrupted by a grimace of pain.
Anas Al-Sharif and Mahmoud Shalha (right) calling Fadi Al-Wahidi, still in hospital (left), to share the news of the ceasefire, on January 15, 2025. (Credit: Composite created using screenshots from a video posted by Anas Al-Sharif on Twitter (X).
“You will travel to receive treatment. In a few days, you will be fine,” his colleagues said to him “The coverage continues.”
Eventually, 20 days after the ceasefire (which came into effect on January 19, 2025), and 122 days after he was attacked, Al-Wahidi was evacuated to Egypt.
On February 8, he was transferred in an ambulance to a Cairo hospital through Rafah, with the help of FAJR Scientific.
COGAT did not respond to our inquiries regarding what had changed in this time to prompt their reversal on allowing Al-Wahidi and his family to evacuate Gaza.
In another conversation from his new hospital room in Cairo, Al-Wahidi complained to our consortium about the dramatic disruption in his life. “Since the injury, I can’t walk, I can’t do anything, and that’s been my reality. I hope that I can walk again, so I can go back to planning the future I was dreaming of.”
As of this writing, Al-Wahidi is traveling to Qatar to continue his medical treatment. In the last picture of him that our consortium received, he can be seen smiling.
“I was telling my mom, as soon as the war ends,” he said, “I want to get married, start a family, and live my best life. But Alhamdulillah.”
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