Four journalists among 15 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital: civil defence

TLE DESK: Gaza’s civil
defence agency said four journalists were among at least 15 people killed
Monday when Israeli strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said “the death toll is 15, including four
journalists and one civil defence member”, after strikes hit Nasser Hospital
in Khan Yunis.

According to media watchdogs, around 200 journalists have been killed in
nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

When asked by AFP about strikes targeting a building at the medical complex,
the Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said a group of reporters had “been
martyred in the line of journalistic duty, as a result of the Israeli bombing
that targeted them at Nasser Hospital”.

In a statement, it named the reporters as photojournalists Hossam Al-Masri,
Mohammad Salama and Mariam Dagga, and journalist Moaz Abu Taha.

A spokesperson for Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera on Monday confirmed its
photojournalist and cameraman Mohammad Salama was killed in the attack on the
medical complex.

The three others worked with some Palestinian and international outlets,
according to AFP journalists.

Associated Press said Mariam Dagga was a freelancer for the news agency but
was not on an assignment with the media outlet when she was killed.

Reuters said that one of the journalists killed and one of those injured were
contractors for the news agency.

The civil defence’s Bassal said an Israeli explosive drone targeted a
building at Nasser Hospital, followed by an air strike as the wounded were
being evacuated.

– Smoke, bloodied bodies –

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP
is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil
defence agency or the Israeli military.

AFP footage from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed smoke filling
the air and debris from the blast on the floor outside the hospital.

Palestinians rushed to help the victims, carrying bloodied bodies and severed
body parts into the medical complex. One body could be seen dangling from the
top floor of the targeted building as a man screamed below.

A woman wearing medical scrubs and a white coat was among the injured,
carried into the hospital on a stretcher with a heavily bandaged leg and
blood all over her clothes.

Before the latest killings, media advocacy groups the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders said around 200 journalists
had been killed in the Gaza war.

Earlier this month, four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers were killed in
an Israeli air strike outside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, prompting
widespread condemnation.

The Israeli military alleged that Anas al-Sharif — a prominent Al Jazeera
correspondent killed in the strike — headed a Hamas “terrorist cell” and was
“responsible for advancing rocket attacks” against Israelis.

The CPJ slammed that strike, saying journalists should never be targeted in
war.

“Journalists are civilians. They must never be targeted in war. And to do so
is a war crime,” Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the CPJ, told AFP at the
time.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which
resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP
tally based on official figures.Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them
civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza
that the United Nations considers reliable.