Israel’s justification for Gaza hospital attack false, Reuters probe finds | Gaza News

Israel falsely claimed a Hamas digital camera was the goal of a lethal strike that killed 22 individuals, together with journalists.

Israel’s justification for bombing a Khan Younis hospital in southern Gaza, claiming it focused a Hamas digital camera, is fake, in keeping with 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 digital camera that was the goal of the strike. However a Reuters evaluation of visible proof and interviews with witnesses established that the digital camera in query truly belonged to the information company and had lengthy been utilized by one among its personal journalists.

The “double-tap” assault killed 22 individuals, including five journalists – one among whom labored for Al Jazeera. Their deaths convey the variety of journalists killed in Israeli assaults on Gaza to greater than 200 because the genocidal battle started almost two years in the past.

A day after the hospital strike, the military stated troops had fired on a “suspicious” digital camera draped in fabric, claiming it was operated by Hamas. Drone footage later confirmed the gadget on a hospital stairwell, lined with a prayer rug belonging to Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri – who was killed within the strike – not Hamas, Reuters discovered.

A minimum of 35 instances since Might, al-Masri had positioned his digital camera on the identical stairwell to report dwell broadcasts distributed worldwide. He usually used the rug to defend 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 battle crime in opposition to the hospital, its sufferers and medical workers.”

Reuters stated it reviewed greater than 100 movies and pictures from the scene and interviewed greater than two dozen individuals 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 employees. A second explosion struck as rescuers rushed in.

“We have 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 colleges, shelters, mosques and church buildings. Its assaults have additionally killed journalists, medical workers, first responders and humanitarian employees. Regardless of repeated global calls for 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 evaluation 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.