At least five journalists were among the 20 people killed in a fresh Israeli attack on a hospital in southern Gaza on Monday, 25 August. The latest attack comes days after the 10 August strike near Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital that killed six journalists, including four Al Jazeera staff.
Journalists Mohammad Salama, a cameraman from Al Jazeera, Hussam Al-Masri, a freelance photographer for Reuters, Mariam Abu Dagga, who freelances for the Associated Press and other outlets, and freelance journalists Moath Abu Taha and Ahmed Abu Aziz were killed in the back-to-back strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, media reports said.
Just two days ago, on Saturday, 23 August, Palestine TV journalist Khaled al-Madhoun was killed by the Israeli army in northern Gaza while filming food distribution.
CNN quoted Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as conceding that journalists and first responders had been killed in the latest attack, referring to their deaths as a “tragic mishap.”
International press bodies such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the attack and appealed to the international community to hold Israel accountable for its continued unlawful attacks on the press.
“Israel killed at least five journalists in Nasser Hospital on Monday morning. Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza continues while the world watches and fails to act firmly on the most horrific attacks the press has ever faced in recent history,” said CPJ’s regional director Sara Qudah. “These murders must end now. The perpetrators must no longer be allowed to act with impunity.” At least 197 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war so far, CPJ reported.
The Foreign Press Association in Israel and the Palestinian Territories described the strikes as “among the deadliest Israeli attacks on journalists working for international media since the Gaza war began,” CNN reported.
Thibaut Bruttin, RSF director general, said, “Four more journalists were killed this Monday morning. How far will the Israeli armed forces go in their gradual effort to eliminate information coming from Gaza? How long will they continue to defy international humanitarian law? The protection of journalists is guaranteed by international law, yet more than 200 of them have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past two years.”
“Ten years after the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2222, which protects journalists in times of conflict, the Israeli army is flouting its application. RSF calls for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to ensure this resolution is finally respected, and that concrete measures are taken to end impunity for crimes against journalists, protect Palestinian journalists, and open access to the Gaza Strip to all reporters,” Bruttin said.
Condemning the killings of the journalists, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said medical workers and journalists should be protected and be able to carry out their work without interference, intimidation, or harm.
