An Israeli air strike in a tent camp in a hospital complex in the southern city of Gaza, Khan Younis, killed 10 people, including a journalist, while seriously injuring dozens of others after their camp caught fire.
The images and videos of the Nasser Hospital of Khan Younis showed that people were desperately trying to turn the fires while burning a row of tents. A video has shown that people were screaming while a passerby was trying to move a burning piece of furniture, while a journalist, later identified as Ahmed Mansour from Palestine of Palestine, was entitled to the fire resumption.
His colleague Helmi al-Faqawi was killed in the strike, while at least nine other journalists were among the injured. Mansour received a treatment for serious burns while photographer Hassan Aslih would have been in a stable condition after undergoing a head injury and cuts to his right hand.
The Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ramallah said that 10 people had been killed in the air strike, with many more injured. The ministry has described the death of al-Faqawi an act of “extrajudicial murder”, the labeling part of the growing crimes against journalists and an attempt to prevent the media from covering events on the ground.
Dozens of journalists in Gaza joined the relatives of Al-Faqawi to bury the journalist killed in the hours that followed the attack, placing a blue flak jacket on the white shroud covering his body on a stretcher. His murder brought the number of Palestinian journalists killed since October 2023 to 207, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the occupied West Bank.
“We will continue to transmit the message and transmit the truth to the whole world. It is our humanitarian duty,” said journalist Abd Shaat. He said that the noise of the air strike had woken them up, but for them to see that a neighboring tent sheltering their colleagues was on fire.
Since the start of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of people have sought a shelter in camps in hospital land across the besieged territory, hoping that proximity will provide a safety measure.
Israeli defense forces (FDI) and the Shin Bet security agency said that the hospital air strike was aimed at Aslih, whom they accused of being a member of Hamas. In a statement, the FDI accused Aslih of having participated in the attack on Hamas against a series of Israeli cities and Kibbutzim on October 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostage.
He participated in the attack by downloading “images of looting, criminal fire and murder on social networks,” said the FDI. ASLIH documented the impact of Israeli attacks against Gaza by downloading photos and videos on its Instagram page, followed by 571,000 people.
His latest article showed the funeral of journalist Islam Miqdad, his blue flak jacket also draped the white shroud on his body, in a funeral ritual for journalists. Miqdad was killed during an attack on the building where she approached with her young son in the west of Khan Younis.
“My daughter is innocent. She had no involvement, she loved journalism and adored her,” Miqdad’s mother Amal Kaskeen told the Associated Press.
Last year was the deadliest ever recorded for journalists, with Israel responsible for 70% of the total death of media workers, according to the Committee to protect journalists (CPJ). The assault of Israel against Gaza cost 82 Palestinian journalists in 2024, according to CPJ.
Israel has resumed air strikes on Gaza after a fragile cease-fire collapsed last month. The United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees said that 142,000 other people had been moved in just six days in March after resumption of fighting.
Fifty-nine hostages, 24 including alive, are still detained by activists in Gaza. The Israeli aggression on the territory killed more than 50,000 Palestinians in 18 months of war, a third of which, according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
