Kochi | Wael Al-Dahdouh, the Gaza Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera news channel, who continued to report from the war-torn enclave despite losing his wife, two children and a grandchild to Israeli bombing, has been selected for the Kerala Media Academy's 'Mediaperson of the year' award.

The award comprises Rs one lakh, a citation and a sculpture, and will be presented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, KMA said in a release today.

KMA chairman R S Babu said that Dahdouh, who is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Qatar, termed the award from Kerala an invaluable honour, according to the release .

Dahdouh was selected following the recommendations of an association of investigative journalists and a committee of editors of media magazines, it said.

The Palestinian journalist's wife, two children and a grandchild died in the bombing of Gaza by Israel. His cameraman too was killed in an Israeli missile attack.

Since the Hamas militant group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, retaliatory action by the Israeli Defence Forces have killed over 27,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza, several thousand among them being children below the age of 5.