Israel’s justification for bombing a Khan Younis hospital in southern Gaza, claiming it focused a Hamas digital camera, is fake, in accordance with an investigation by the information company Reuters.
Israeli forces deliberate the August 25 assault on Nasser Hospital utilizing drone footage that, a navy official stated, confirmed a Hamas digital camera that was the goal of the strike. However a Reuters overview of visible proof and interviews with witnesses established that the digital camera in query really belonged to the information company and had lengthy been utilized by one in all its personal journalists.
The “double-tap” assault killed 22 folks, together with 5 journalists – one in all whom labored for Al Jazeera. Their deaths carry the variety of journalists killed in Israeli assaults on Gaza to greater than 200 for the reason that genocidal struggle started almost two years in the past.
A day after the hospital strike, the military stated troops had fired on a “suspicious” digital camera draped in fabric, claiming it was operated by Hamas. Drone footage later confirmed the system on a hospital stairwell, lined with a prayer rug belonging to Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri – who was killed within the strike – not Hamas, Reuters discovered.
A minimum of 35 instances since Might, al-Masri had positioned his digital camera on the identical stairwell to file reside broadcasts distributed worldwide. He typically used the rug to protect it from warmth and dirt.
“The declare that Hamas was filming Israeli forces from Nasser Hospital is fake and fabricated,” stated Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Authorities Media Workplace. “Israel is making an attempt to cowl up a full-fledged struggle crime in opposition to the hospital, its sufferers and medical employees.”
Reuters stated it reviewed greater than 100 movies and images from the scene and interviewed greater than two dozen folks to reconstruct the occasions of the assault.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem described the stairwell as “a makeshift newsroom” the place journalists had gathered earlier than the strike. Al-Masri’s reside broadcast froze moments earlier than the blast, which killed him together with a number of civil defence staff. A second explosion struck as rescuers rushed in.
“We have been rescuing the martyrs and wounded … then an enormous explosion amongst us,” stated Reuters cameraman Hatem Khaled.
Israel has repeatedly focused hospitals and different websites protected below worldwide humanitarian regulation, together with colleges, shelters, mosques and church buildings. Its assaults have additionally killed journalists, medical employees, first responders and humanitarian staff. Regardless of repeated international requires investigations, Israel continues to behave with impunity whereas finishing up genocide in Gaza.
The Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ) says Israel has by no means printed the outcomes of a proper investigation nor held anybody accountable for the killings of journalists.
“None of those incidents prompted a significant overview of Israel’s guidelines of engagement, nor did worldwide condemnation result in any change within the sample of assaults on journalists over the previous two years,” stated Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Center East and North Africa.
