The number of martyred journalists in Gaza, since the beginning of this genocide, has now risen to 246, after Israel massacred another five in a targeted attack on Nasser Medical Complex earlier today, and one was fatally shot in his tent by the occupation in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Targeted attacks on Nasser Hospital kill 20, journalists, medical staff and Civil Defense among the dead
A deadly targeted strike was carried out on the fourth floor of Nasser Medical Complex, Khan Younis, in the Southern Gaza Strip.
Moments after the initial attack, as paramedics and Palestinian Civil Defense (PCD) crews rushed to the scene to evacuate the wounded, the same location was intentionally struck again, as emergency crews arrived to retrieve the wounded and the martyrs.
PCD Driver, Imad Abdel Hakim Al-Shaer, was killed, and seven other members of the Khan Younis Civil Defense crew were injured while attempting to rescue the wounded and retrieve the dead. This was caught on film, during a live broadcast:
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, the initial death toll has reached 20, including medical staff, patients, journalists and Civil Defense members, in addition to 50 people injured. The bombing also caused panic and chaos, disrupted the operations unit, and deprived patients and the wounded of their right to treatment.
Six journalists murdered by the occupation in one day
As the Canary previously reported, the murdered journalists are Al Jazeera’s Photojournalist Mohammad Salama, female Journalist Maryam Abu Daqqa-who worked for many international media outlets including Associated Press and Independent Arabic and also with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), journalist Moaz Abu Taha-who worked for NBC, Hussam Al-Masri, a photojournalist with Reuters News Agency, and Quds Feed Network journalist Ahmad Abu Aziz, who died several hours after the blast from his injuries.
There are also two wounded journalists from today’s strike on Nasser Hospital. They are Reuters photojournalist Hatem Omar, and Palestine Today TV photojournalist Jamal Badah.
Journalists use Gaza’s hospitals as a base so they can use internet and electricity, and they often report from these places are where most of the horrors from the genocide. They were on a reporting mission at Nasser Hospital when the occupation bombed them.
Journalists have been systematically targeted and killed and the healthcare system decimated during the past 23 months of this genocide. The occupation also carried out a targeted killing on journalist Hassan Douhan, who worked for the Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, shooting him dead in his refugee tent earlier today in Al-Mawasi, which is a so called ‘safe zone’:
Double tap strikes intentionally used by the Israeli regime to cause maximum carnage
According to a recent investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call, Israel uses ‘double tap’ strikes as standard procedure in Gaza.
To increase the likelihood that a target will die, the army routinely carries out additional attacks in the area of an initial bombing, sometimes intentionally killing paramedics and others involved in rescue efforts. The report says the occupation commonly uses double tap strikes when bombing schools housing displaced Palestinians. It also mentions an attack in May on a girl’s school in Jabalia, where the occupation struck again in the same spot to prevent the burned children from getting rescued.
Nasser Medical Complex is the only partially functioning public hospital in the South of Gaza, but has endured multiple attacks involving airstrikes, shelling, and incursions, with significant casualties, damage to medical infrastructure, and impact on hospital operations since December 2023.
Since October 2023, the occupation has not only abducted, tortured, and killed doctors and other health care workers, but has systematically attacked hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip, severely damaging the healthcare infrastructure and pushing the system to the brink of collapse.
According to the World Health organisation, fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals and under 38% of primary healthcare centers are partially functioning – or are doing so at minimal levels and, together with Israel’s campaign of enforced starvation, this is creating a dire humanitarian crisis with critically low medical supplies and overwhelmed medical personnel.
UK and others responsible for Israel’s war crimes
The Gaza Government Media Office in a statement today said of Israel’s war crimes:
We hold the Israeli occupation, the U.S. administration, and the states participating in the genocide – such as the UK, Germany and France – fully responsible for committing these heinous and brutal crimes. We call on the international community, international organizations, and all bodies concerned with journalism and media work worldwide, to condemn the crimes of the occupation, to deter and prosecute it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health is urging the international community and all relevant institutions to take immediate action to protect humanitarian teams in Gaza. It says, the international community’s silence and its failure to take real measures to restrain the occupation and stop its crimes, amounts to actual complicity and a license for these crimes to continue.
Featured image via screengrab
