Palestinians mourn the dying of journalists who have been killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Gaza’s civil protection company stated 5 journalists amongst no less than 20 different individuals killed within the strike.
Abed Rahim Khatib/image alliance through Getty Pictures
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Abed Rahim Khatib/image alliance through Getty Pictures
Editor’s word: This story accommodates a graphic picture.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces killed 22 individuals, together with 5 journalists, in two consecutive strikes on Gaza’s largest functioning hospital, drawing international condemnation and prompting a uncommon admission of remorse by the Israeli authorities.
The dying toll from the strikes was confirmed by Nasser Hospital’s morgue to NPR.
The journalists labored for a number of worldwide retailers, together with The Related Press, Reuters and Al Jazeera’s Arabic information channel. They have been killed by strikes on the fourth ground open stairwell of the Nasser Hospital constructing Monday morning, the place they have been standing together with first responders and medical workers.
The primary strike passed off round 10 a.m. when Hussam al-Masri, a cameraman for the Reuters information company, was working a dwell feed with a fowl’s-eye view of close by Israeli army positions, together with tanks, within the devastated metropolis of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
A second missile, fired from a tank, slammed into the identical spot simply minutes later, as rescue staff raced to Masri, with different journalists photographing and filming the aftermath of that preliminary strike, in accordance with witnesses and photographs. On the web site, one other digital camera feed for Al-Ghad information channel zoomed in, capturing the second of the second assault in actual time.
A journalist holds the blood-covered digital camera belonging to Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, who freelanced for The Related Press and was killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, within the southern Gaza Strip, Monday.
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“Oh God, the rescuers are gone. They killed the individuals! They killed them,” the reporter yells in disbelief on dwell tv.
Different individuals killed within the assaults at Nasser Medical Complicated in Khan Younis embody medical workers, a medical resident and a primary responder, in accordance with morgue information.
It marked one of many deadliest days for the press within the Palestinian territory, the place Israeli assaults have killed 245 media staff previously 22 months of the struggle, in accordance with lists printed by Palestinian journalists.
By early afternoon, fellow journalists and dozens of different individuals had gathered to mourn their useless colleagues, who have been ready for burial with their physique armor marked “PRESS” positioned on prime of their corpses that have been wrapped in white sheets.
“This can be a felony enemy that desires to silence us,” Reuters photojournalist, Hatem Omar, stated. He was amongst a number of journalists wounded within the assault.
Amongst these killed was Mariam Dagga, a contributor with The Related Press.
Freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, who had been working with The Related Press and different retailers throughout the struggle in Gaza, poses for a portrait in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on June 14, 2024. She was among the many journalists killed Monday in Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Jehad Alshrafi/AP
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Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Her most lately filed AP images confirmed emaciated, severely malnourished Palestinian kids in Gaza, and a story together with her byline printed earlier this month highlighted the dying of a 2-year-old baby, Ro’a Mashi, who medical doctors stated had “wasted away over months as her household struggled to seek out meals and therapy.”
Within the closing video of herself shared on Instagram, and posted simply earlier than her dying, the 33-year-old stands in entrance of a mirror taking deep breaths to the backdrop of a track about ascending to heaven. She appears gaunt and pale — a glimpse of the hunger and exhaustion journalists and different Palestinians face in Gaza.
The AP says Dagga evacuated her 13-year-old son out of Gaza early within the struggle, and hadn’t seen him since. The information company stated it was “shocked and saddened to be taught” of her dying. Reuters stated in a press release it was “devastated” to find out about al-Masri’s dying, in addition to that of one other journalist, Moaz Abu Taha, who had sometimes labored for the information wire. It stated it was “urgently searching for extra info” in addition to medical help for Hatem Khaled, one other Reuters contractor wounded in the identical assault.
Al Jazeera stated cameraman Mohammad Salama was the tenth of its journalists to be killed by Israel in Gaza on this struggle, calling the assault an “atrocity.” It stated it “condemns, within the strongest doable phrases, this horrific crime.” The outlet stated the blood had not but dried on an assault simply two weeks in the past that killed six journalists, 5 of them with Al Jazeera, together with Gaza’s most distinguished and well-known reporter, Anas al-Sharif in a focused Israeli airstrike.
In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the army’s prime brass, Reuters and AP expressed their “outrage” and demanded a swift and clear investigation.
“We’re outraged that unbiased journalists have been among the many victims of this strike on the hospital, a location that’s protected below worldwide legislation,” the letter stated.
However they raised doubts about how Israel investigates army actions. “We now have discovered the [Israeli military’s] willingness and skill to research itself in previous incidents to hardly ever end in readability and motion, elevating critical questions together with whether or not Israel is intentionally focusing on dwell feeds as a way to suppress info,” the letter stated.
The Committee to Defend Journalists condemned the assault. “Israel’s broadcasted killing of journalists in Gaza continues whereas the world watches and fails to behave firmly on essentially the most horrific assaults the press has ever confronted in current historical past,” CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah stated.
The Overseas Press Affiliation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which represents lots of of journalists together with NPR reporters, stated the assault ought to mark a watershed second as Israel continues to dam unbiased entry to Gaza to international journalists and kills journalists in Gaza with out justification.
“We name on Israel as soon as and for all to halt its abhorrent follow of focusing on journalists,” stated a press release from the affiliation.
Inside hours of the incident, the Israeli army had acknowledged the assault, however by late Monday had not but recognized any particular goal. “The IDF doesn’t deliberately goal civilians,” Israeli army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin stated in a video assertion on social media, utilizing the initials for the Israeli army. “We remorse any hurt to uninvolved people.”
The workplace of Israel’s prime minister issued a press release saying Israel “deeply regrets the tragic mishap” on the hospital, including that it “values the work of journalists, medical workers, and all civilians.” The assertion supplied no additional particulars on what accountability there is likely to be for the killing of twenty-two individuals within the assault.
Anas Baba reported from Khan Younis, Gaza, and Aya Batrawy from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
