Israel struck Nasser Hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists who worked for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and others.
Cameraman Hussam Al Masri, a Reuters contractor, was killed near a live broadcasting position operated by Reuters on an upper floor just below the roof of the hospital in Khan Younis in an initial strike, according to Palestinian health officials.
Officials at the hospital and witnesses said Israel then struck the site a second time, killing other journalists, as well as rescue workers and medics, who had rushed to the scene to help.
The journalists killed included Mariam Abu Dagga, who freelanced for the Associated Press and other outlets, Mohammed Salama, who worked for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist who worked with several news organisations including occasionally contributing to Reuters, and Ahmed Abu Aziz, Middle East Eye.
Photographer Hatem Khaled, also a Reuters contractor, was wounded.
Israel’s military, the Israel Defence Forces, acknowledged striking the area of Nasser Hospital and said the chief of the general staff had ordered an inquiry.
The IDF “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such. The IDF acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of IDF troops,” it said.
The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned Israel for the strikes, saying it represented ‘an open war against free media, with the aim of terrorising journalists and preventing them from fulfilling their professional duty of exposing its crimes to the world’.
More than 240 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the war started on October 7, 2023.
The GDN subscribes to Reuters for its world coverage.
&uuid=(email))