Palestinians are calling out the Israeli military’s obvious lie that it was trying to “dismantle” a camera when it targeted a hospital in Gaza this week in a double tap strike that killed 21 people, including five journalists and the rescue team sent to save them.
In a statement on the results of its “initial inquiry” into the attack, the Israeli military claimed that troops operating in the area had “identified a camera that was positioned by Hamas” near Nasser Hospital. The military claimed the camera was observing their activities, and the troops “operated to remove the threat by striking and dismantling the camera.”
This is a clear lie on several levels, Palestinians and reports have pointed out — particularly given that Israel has the capability to take down a camera without killing 21 people and bombing a hospital in the process.
Locals say that the location Israel bombed is well-known to be a gathering spot for journalists because they can access the internet there and use it for broadcasting. It is also the emergency stairs for the “main” wing of the hospital, said Nasser’s head of pediatrics, Ahmed al-Farra, in an interview with Democracy Now! on Wednesday. The building includes the ICU, operating theater and “all the main departments” of the complex, he said.
Al-Farra pointed out that, if Israel needed to dismantle a single camera, there are far less deadly ways to do so.
“I understand that you want to damage the camera. Why [are you] killing the people?” he said. “You are highly techni[cal]. You have high technique. You have a drone. You have snipers. You have everything. You can shoot the camera.” He also pointed out that Israel could issue evacuation orders before striking the hospital or at least warn the journalists to leave the area beforehand.
Rather, al-Farra said, the attack’s purpose was clearly “silencing witnesses.” “It is unbelievable to talk about ‘we want the camera.’ If you want the camera, why [did you do] the second attack?”
Israeli forces also claimed that the strike killed six members of Hamas — a claim that Hamas has denied. Israel has claimed countless times that people killed in its strikes, especially ones that garner international attention, were Hamas fighters, without providing substantial evidence.
There was, indeed, a camera installed where Israel struck Nasser Hospital, near the roof, reports say. But this camera was operated by Reuters reporter Hossam al-Masri, who was broadcasting live when he was killed by Israel’s initial strike.
“The targeting was direct and deliberate, of Hossam from the very first moment. Because Hossam had been broadcasting for over an hour, live through the Reuters camera,” said al-Masri’s brother, Ezzedine al-Masri, in an interview with Middle East Eye. The feed was being shown live by Al Jazeera Mubasher, he said.
The camera displayed a wide shot of Khan Younis, and Hossam al-Masri broadcasted from it every day, Ezzedine al-Masri said. The location, purpose, and ownership of the camera was known to Israeli forces.
“It was well known from the beginning of the war, it was known that the location had been given to the occupation by the agency, that here was our camera,” he said. Ezzedine al-Masri said that, at one point, he had even asked his brother if it was safe to use the camera this way — and his brother said that “of course” it was, because its location was “registered and known” by Israeli forces to be Reuters’s.
“So when the occupation claims that it was by mistake, or expresses regret, and so on, this is something no rational mind can accept. The occupation directly targeted the camera, and directly targeted Hossam,” Ezzedine al-Masri said.
He added that his brother’s body was eviscerated by Israel’s bombing, and his body parts “became mixed with his equipment” in the blast. The journalist was one of five killed by Israeli forces that day, adding to the over 270 journalists killed by Israeli forces throughout the genocide. Israeli forces have openly bragged about targeting many of these journalists, labelling them Hamas fighters without evidence.
The Israeli military did not specify whether it was al-Masri’s camera that it supposedly targeted, though Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also identified the camera mounted there to be his.
On top of this evidence is the fact that Israel’s inquiry contradicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement after the bombing, in which he said that the massacre was a “tragic mishap.”
“The occupation needs no excuse to bomb the truth. The occupation needs no excuse to bomb journalists. Hossam was not the first, and will not be the last. Because the occupation has grown accustomed to bombing journalists, directly, without being punished, without international agencies protesting, nor humanitarian organizations, nor anyone else,” Ezzedine al-Masri said. “So, the first [strike] was a mistake, and the second? And it was live. Wasn’t this premeditated killing? … What kind of mistake is this?”
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