He was killed during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war after the Israeli army bombed an Al Jazeera crew in Khan Yunis on 15 December 2023, while he was covering a Haifa School airstrike.

His body was buried in the cemetery of the city of Khan Yunis wearing his press vest and helmet in a grave dug by his journalist colleagues.

[12] Al Jazeera Media Network decided to refer the case of the assassination of Samer Abu Daqqa, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) − which presides over war crimes − “urgently”.

Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour stated in a General Assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document (their) crimes and inform the world, the journalists.

In the 10 weeks of war in occupied Gaza until his death, the Israeli army had left 18,800 dead and 51,000 injured, most of them children and women, a massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

[16] On 22 December, Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court over the killing of seven Palestinian journalists, including Abu Daqqa.