By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Saturday was a bad day for journalism in Nigeria and, internationally, at skirmish-prone Gaza in Palestine.
Bandits struck on a hijacking note at the weekend in Kaduna State and Gaza, in faraway Palestine, kidnapping the two journalists, alongside some family members, and abducting five newsmen themselves in separate acts of terrorism.
Reports say that, on Saturday night, a band of terrorists invaded the Dahjonu community in Millennium City, Chikun local government area of Kaduna State, and abducted two journalists, Abdulgafar Alabelewe and Blueprint newspaper’s AbdulRaheem Abdu, as well as their wives and children.
Elsewhere, in the international troubled land, terror also ricocheted as troops were said to have caused mayhem with the shooting and killing of 29 in Gaza, including five journalists.
Back home in Nigeria, Alabelewe, the Kaduna State Correspondent of The Nation newspaper, is also the current chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), and state Council chair.
A family member of one of the victims, Taofeeq Olayemi, who confirmed the incident, said the bandits invaded the area around 10.30 pm and shot indiscriminately before carrying out their act.
Olayemi said the bandits kidnapped Alabelewe, his wife, and two of his children, while Aodu and his wife, who was also sick, were kidnapped, leaving behind their sick daughter.
He said, “Initially, they picked Abdulgafar, his wife, and three of his children and a girl staying with them, before asking the girl to return with one of the children and left with Abdulgafar, his wife, and two children. They shattered their doors and windows and removed their burglary after scaling the fence.”
Olayemi, who is also a neighbour to the victims, added, “They came around 10:30 pm on Saturday and started shooting indiscriminately. They first forced Aodu’s door open picked him and his wife and left their sick daughter behind. Then, they entered Abdulgafar’s house through the fence and jumped into his house.
“They went straight into his bedroom and picked him, his wife, and two of their kids and left immediately after which the vigilante arrived and started shooting into the air.”
As of the time of filing this report, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mansir Hassan, could not be reached for comments as his telephone line was not connecting.
*Five reporters, 24 others killed in airstrikes on Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have stepped up military strikes across Gaza in the past 24 hours, killing at least 29 Palestinians, among them five journalists.
The five deceased journalists, reports added, bring to 158 the number of journalists that the Hamas-Israeli war has claimed since October 7, 2023.
Gaza territory health officials said the separate airstrikes that claimed 29 lives on Friday through Saturday wounded about a hundred other people.
According to officials, in one incident, Israeli forces which deepened their incursions into Rafah, near the border with Egypt, killed four Palestinian policemen and wounded eight others in an air strike on their vehicle on Saturday.
A statement from the Hamas-run interior ministry said the four deceased policemen included the head of the police force in the western Rafah neighbourhood of Tel Al-Sultan, Fares Abdel-Al.
The Israeli military on its part said forces continued intelligence-base operations in Rafah, destroyed several underground structures, seized weapons, and killed several Palestinian gunmen.
The military explained that its operations in Rafah were aimed at eradicating the last Hamas armed-wing battalions.
Although Hamas has given initial approval for a truce deal in Gaza, dropping the demand that Israel commits to a complete end to the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said gaps remain between negotiating parties after Israel’s Mossad chief left Doha at the end of Gaza truce talks with mediators.
Armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been on mainly in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
There have also been clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and with Hezbollah along the borders with Lebanon and Syria.
Recorded as the fifth war of the Gaza-Israel conflict since 2008, the Hamas-Israel war is regarded as part of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
The Hamas-Israel war reportedly began when Hamas-led militant groups attacked Israel on October 7, when an estimated 3,000 militants breached the Gaza-Israel barrier and attacked Israeli civilian communities and military bases, launching several thousand rockets concurrently into Israel.
During the surprise attack, 1,139 Israelis and foreign nationals were allegedly killed by the militants who allegedly also abducted 251 Israelis and foreigners and took them into Gaza.
Hamas said at the time that its attack was in response to the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the blockades of the Gaza Strip, and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, among other claims.
Israel responded by launching destructive bombing campaigns and then commencing a huge ground invasion on October 27, the vow of the Israeli forces being to destroy Hamas and release all hostages.
The group Hamas, which is fully spelled out as Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, is an Islamic resistance movement and a Palestinian Sunni Islamist political and military movement ruling parts of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007.
