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Israel’s justification for bombing a Khan Younis hospital in southern Gaza, claiming it focused a Hamas digicam, is fake, in response to an investigation by the information company Reuters.
Israeli forces deliberate the August 25 assault on Nasser Hospital utilizing drone footage that, a navy official stated, confirmed a Hamas digicam that was the goal of the strike. However a Reuters evaluate of visible proof and interviews with witnesses established that the digicam in query truly belonged to the information company and had lengthy been utilized by certainly one of its personal journalists.
The “double-tap” assault killed 22 folks, together with 5 journalists – certainly one of whom labored for Al Jazeera. Their deaths carry the variety of journalists killed in Israeli assaults on Gaza to greater than 200 because the genocidal struggle started practically two years in the past.
A day after the hospital strike, the military stated troops had fired on a “suspicious” digicam draped in fabric, claiming it was operated by Hamas. Drone footage later confirmed the machine on a hospital stairwell, coated with a prayer rug belonging to Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri – who was killed within the strike – not Hamas, Reuters discovered.
At the very least 35 instances since Might, al-Masri had positioned his digicam on the identical stairwell to file dwell broadcasts distributed worldwide. He usually used the rug to protect it from warmth and dirt.
“The declare that Hamas was filming Israeli forces from Nasser Hospital is fake and fabricated,” stated Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Authorities Media Workplace. “Israel is making an attempt to cowl up a full-fledged struggle crime in opposition to the hospital, its sufferers and medical workers.”
Reuters stated it reviewed greater than 100 movies and photographs from the scene and interviewed greater than two dozen folks to reconstruct the occasions of the assault.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem described the stairwell as “a makeshift newsroom” the place journalists had gathered earlier than the strike. Al-Masri’s dwell broadcast froze moments earlier than the blast, which killed him together with a number of civil defence staff. A second explosion struck as rescuers rushed in.
“We had been rescuing the martyrs and wounded … then an enormous explosion amongst us,” stated Reuters cameraman Hatem Khaled.
Israel has repeatedly focused hospitals and different websites protected below worldwide humanitarian legislation, together with faculties, shelters, mosques and church buildings. Its assaults have additionally killed journalists, medical workers, first responders and humanitarian staff. Regardless of repeated world requires investigations, Israel continues to behave with impunity whereas finishing up genocide in Gaza.
The Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ) says Israel has by no means revealed the outcomes of a proper investigation nor held anybody accountable for the killings of journalists.
“None of those incidents prompted a significant evaluate of Israel’s guidelines of engagement, nor did worldwide condemnation result in any change within the sample of assaults on journalists over the previous two years,” stated Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Center East and North Africa.
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