28-year-old journalist Alaa Abdul Wahab al-Dahdouh was killed alongside Adnan Halas in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Halas family home near the Al-Ghafri junction on Al-Jalaa Street during the morning of 31 May 2024. Olla’s husband Abdul Rahman Halas, and one-and-a-half-year-old son Karam Halas, were injured.
Olla, Abdul Rahman and Karam had previously been displaced from their home in northern Gaza’s Shuja’iyya neighbourhood; this brought them to live with Abdul Rahman’s uncle in the house that would eventually be destroyed in the strike.
Olla had been a broadcaster and editor with Sawt al-Watan Radio; the station offered its “deepest condolences” for her dearth, and wished “her husband and son a speedy recovery.” She had graduated from the Faculty of Journalism and Public Relations at Al-Azhar University.
Wissam Zaghbar, the director of Sawt al-Watan, spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists, writing that Olla “trained at [the] radio station in 2017 when she was only a media student,” and joined the staff after she graduated in 2019. She “started as an editor in the news division and then became also a presenter, where she shined. She was an editor and a host at the same time and was known for her punctuality even though her program was very early in the morning.”
According to El-Asoboa, she had “filed a third complaint with the International Court of Justice regarding the targeting of journalists in Gaza, following an initial complaint on October 31 and another on December 22.”
Indeed, Olla had been eager to see the war’s end. @QatarPressC reported that her final social media post before her death was: “Oh God, let the Day of Arafah [the second day of the Hajj pilgrimage and considered especially holy within Islam] not come without you stopping the war on Gaza, and let Eid not come without Gaza celebrating Eid.” A post from @HdLyhtJasimEid also spoke to Olla’s social media. @HdLyhtJasimEid shared a photograph of Yahya Sinwar; Olla had commented on it, writing “This is what destroyed an entire nation.” @HdLyhtJasimEid wrote that Olla “spoke a word of truth filled with regret”; the source asked “How will you meet your Lord, Sinwar and Haniyeh, with the blood of an entire people on your necks and the great disasters and tragedies you have caused?” The Committee to Protect Journalists corroborated this, reporting that Olla had “posted critical views of Hamas on her Facebook page, including posts calling for the war to end.”
Olla’s brother, Muhannad al-Dahdouh, writing a year after her death, wrote that even with the passage of time, her “voice still echoes in my memory, and your image never leaves my heart.” She had been his “sister, [his] companion, and [his] pride.” Though he remained “helpless before the pain of your absence,” Muhannad wrote, he kept his“head held high because you were martyred while you were free and honorable, fulfilling your duty until your last breath.” Included with the post was a photograph of Olla, wearing a pink hijab and holding a rose.
Many sources also commemorated Adnan Halas, “Abu Omar.” Khaled Halas Abu Karim lauded his “respected and honourable uncle,” remembering him as a “Hajj,” indicating that he had completed the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Khaled prayed that God would have “mercy on him, forgive him, and grant him the highest level of Paradise.” He included a photograph of Adnan, an elderly man, wearing a suit and white kufi. @Eng-hussain S. Hilless remembered him as someone with significant religious dedication, writing that he had died “after a life filled with obedience to God and righteous deeds.”
An image from Awda TV Channel purported to show the moment of the airstrike – a plume of smoking rising into the sky.
Olla’s name was matched with the eighth publication of the Palestinian Ministry of Health List of Fatalities in Gaza, released 24 March 2025.
Where sources identified a belligerent, all pointed to the Israeli military.