Israeli forces killed five journalists and those who came to rescue them in an apparent “double tap” strike on a major hospital in southern Gaza on Monday, in a massacre that health officials say left at least 20 Palestinians dead.
Gaza officials confirmed the journalists’ deaths. Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Dagga, Mohammad Salama, and Moaz Abu Taha were killed immediately, while Ahmed Abu Aziz later died of his injuries. The journalists have done work for numerous outlets, with Dagga having worked for The Associated Press; al-Masri for Reuters; Salama for Al Jazeera; Salama and Aziz for Middle East Eye; and more.
The journalists were on the top floor of Nasser Hospital, the main hospital in southern Gaza, when Israel bombed them. Witnesses said that about 10 to 15 minutes later, as a group of civil defense workers responded to the attack, Israel bombed the hospital again, killing the medical workers as well. The hospital said that four of its staff had been killed.
The second strike was captured on a live broadcast on al-Ghad TV.
Double tap strikes violate international law, and have reportedly been increasingly used by Israeli forces in targeting Palestinian health workers in Gaza.
Israel acknowledged the strike, but said that it is opening an inquiry into the attack, claiming that Israeli forces do not target journalists — even as officials have openly bragged about their assassinations of Palestinian journalists, many of whom they have labelled as “terrorists.” A recent investigation found, in fact, that Israel has an entire intelligence unit tasked with justifying such killings.
Journalists often use the part of the hospital struck by Israel for live broadcasts, a surgeon who works at Nasser told The Washington Post. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported seeing an Israeli surveillance drone over the facility before the attack, “providing further evidence that it was deliberate and intelligence-guided, with precise information collected about the site and the victims.”
The Associated Press wrote that Dagga frequently worked out of Nasser. In her latest report for AP, on August 14, she reported on malnourished children in the hospital who were dying or at risk of death because of Israel’s near-total blockade on food and supplies needed to treat severe starvation cases.
Al Jazeera has reported that over 270 journalists have been killed in Israel’s genocide. The journalist death toll in Gaza is the worst of any war in modern history, with more journalists killed than in the last seven major U.S.-involved wars combined, including both world wars.
UN experts have said that Israel is killing journalists in order to erase witnesses to its atrocities, especially as it embarks on its destruction of Gaza City.
“Palestinian journalists right now are crying. If I show you my colleagues that are sitting between their reporting and live shifts, they’re trying to hold their tears, trying to find the words to describe what is going on. Our colleagues were killed live on air,” said Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary. “There’s no way there are any words to describe what’s happening.”
“How many times are we going to continue reporting on the killing of our colleagues or the killing of other journalists working with Al Jazeera and other news outlets?” Khoudary asked.
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese pleaded with countries to intervene to end Israel’s slaughter.
“Scenes like this unfold every moment in Gaza, often unseen, largely undocumented. I beg STATES: how much more must be witnessed before you act to stop this carnage?” she wrote.
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