NEWS-FINANCE -QUOTE-EDUCATIONAL AND MOTIVATIONAL
Five journalists were among at least 20 people killed by Israeli strikes on N***er hospital in southern Gaza, health officials said.
The strikes on Monday killed Hussam al-Masri, who worked for Reuters, Mariam Abu Dagga, who worked for the Associated Press, the Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Salam, the photojournalist Moaz Abu Taha , and Ahmad Abu Aziz from Quds Feed. Another Reuters journalist, Hatem Khaled, was wounded in the attack.
A video from the news agency Alghad TV showed civil defence workers wearing bright orange vests and journalists being hit by a bomb while they were attempting to rescue the body of Masri, who was killed in an earlier strike on the fourth floor of the hospital. In the moments before their deaths, they raised their hands to shield themselves, but were killed by the explosion.
The second bomb struck the same spot on the fourth floor as the first, after rescue crews had arrived, the Gaza health ministry said. A video later showed a pile of bodies lying where the journalists and civil defence workers were standing at the moment of the strike.
The Associated Press said in a statement that it was shocked and saddened to learn of Dagga’s death, as well as the deaths of the other journalists killed alongside her.
“We are doing everything we can to keep our journalists in Gaza safe as they continue to provide crucial eyewitness reporting in difficult and dangerous conditions,” the agency said.
Reuters said in a statement that it was devastated at the news of the death of al-Masri and wounding of Khaled.
”We are urgently seeking more information and have asked authorities in Gaza and Israel to help us get urgent medical ***istance for Hatem,” a spokesperson said.
At least 193 Palestinian journalists have been killed since 7 October 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), more than the number who died globally in the previous three years. The CPJ said in August that Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza was “a deliberate and systematic attempt to cover up Israel’s actions”.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the chief-of-staff had ordered a preliminary investigation into the strike and said Israel “expressed regret for injury to uninvolved personnel”. Israel did not target journalists, they said.
Israeli inquiries into misconduct by its military rarely ensure accountability. A report published this month shows that 88% of investigations into war crimes allegations in Gaza were shut down or left unresolved. Israel’s investigation into the killing of the Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an Israeli sniper in 2022 was never finished.
Dagga, 33, had freelanced for the AP since the Gaza war began, as well as other news outlets such as Independent Arabia. She reported on N***er hospital doctors struggling to save children with no previous health issues who were wasting away from starvation.
Independent Arabia said Dagga was the “example of dedication and professional commitment” and that she carried “her camera into the heart of the field, conveying the suffering of civilians and the voices of victims with rare honesty and courage”.
Abu Aziz was based out of N***er hospital, where he covered the impact of Israel’s attacks on people across Gaza. He lost several colleagues during the war, as well as his own home that was levelled in a strike.
“It felt like I was all alone and the only one left on the ground as so many more of my colleagues were being killed,” Abu Aziz wrote in an article for Middle East Eye a year ago about his experience as a journalist in Gaza.
Al Jazeera confirmed that Salam was among those killed in the N***er hospital strike. Reuters reported that Masri, a contractor cameraman, was also killed. Khaled, a photographer who was also a Reuters contractor, was wounded, the news agency reported.
Israel has prevented international media from covering the 22-month conflict, an unprecedented ban in the history of war reporting. Palestinian journalists in Gaza who work with international outlets carry out their duties while facing starvation and the risk of death.
The Palestinian ministry of health said Monday’s strikes on N***er hospital had disrupted surgery in the operating theatre, and condemned the attack, which it said was part of a “systematic destruction of the health system”. N***er hospital is the only functioning public hospital left in southern Gaza.
Health officials also reported gunfire that killed people seeking aid in central Gaza and airstrikes in Gaza City.
At least six people were killed and 15 wounded while trying to reach a food distribution site in central Gaza operated by the private US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Shootings by Israeli soldiers near GHF sites are a near daily occurrence, though the Israeli military and GHF deny targeting people seeking food.
A strike on a residential neighbourhood in Gaza City killed at least three people, including a child. Israel is preparing for an invasion of the city in the coming days, which it says it will occupy and take control of.
Aid groups have said the operation would lead to displacement and a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, which is already in the throes of famine.
At least 62,686 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the Gaza war 22 months ago. Israel launched its ***ault after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
