The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has condemned Israel’s assault on Nasser Hospital as “a premeditated strike on medics and journalists”.
The IDF stated the strike focused an “observation camera” utilized by Hamas to watch troop actions from the hospital, including that six of these killed have been “terrorists”.
The Israeli navy has not indicated that every other digital camera was on the balcony, and the hospital’s director says the one particular person on the balcony was the Reuters journalist.
Talking on the UN Safety Council on 27 August, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour stated: “The second strike on Nasser hospital was a premeditated strike on medics and journalists who arrived at the scene after the first strike.
“Whereas the world calls for a everlasting ceasefire, Israel continues its crimes. The place else is the killing of so many civilians and journalists tolerated?”
This is what we all know
At round 10am on Monday 25 August, journalist Hossam Al Masri, 49, was working a Reuters dwell stream from the highest ground of Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis.
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Footage from the livestream reveals Hossam filming the busy market outdoors the hospital, earlier than elevating the digital camera and zooming in on a cloud of black smoke rising within the distance.
At that second, the feed froze. Stories emerged, beginning at 10.09am, of an explosion on the hospital.
Quickly, footage confirmed smoke rising over the constructing, and a piece of concrete lacking from the outside stairwell the place Hossam had been filming.
Journalists and rescue staff rapidly rushed to the location looking for survivors. They discovered two our bodies, together with Hossam’s.
At 10.17am, as rescue efforts continued, a second Israeli strike hit the stairwell.
Three loud bangs may very well be heard in the intervening time of affect.
Footage from the bottom reveals no less than two projectiles impacting in fast succession, with simply milliseconds between them.
An Israeli navy official instructed the Press Affiliation that the strikes have been carried out by tanks.
These might be fired from tanks or helicopters. “The IDF is known to have stocks of the air-launched version, it is unclear if the gun-launched version were procured,” he says.
“If these Lahats were fired from the ground, then at least two tanks would have been involved, as the interval between the two impacts is far too short.”
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Why did Israel assault the hospital?
Footage filmed from the bottom reveals smoke billowing out of the hospital as folks flee.
Because the smoke cleared, rescue staff returned to the scene. What they noticed is just too graphic to publish – no less than seven our bodies scattered all through the stairwell.
Well being officers have since put the entire quantity killed at 22, together with a rescue employee, a health care provider, three hospital employees and 5 journalists.
On Tuesday, the IDF stated that Israeli troops had focused a digital camera “that was positioned by Hamas in the area of the Nasser Hospital [and] that was being used to observe the activity of IDF troops”.
Footage from the aftermath of the primary strike reveals that it hit the highest balcony on the hospital’s exterior stairwell.
This conclusion is supported by eyewitness testimony, in addition to the truth that the feed lower unexpectedly, however with out exhibiting any assault on the hospital, and that Al Masri’s demise was the primary to be reported, at 10.18am.
The IDF stated that Al Masri was “not a target” of the strike. It didn’t specify whether or not his digital camera was the identical one it believes was positioned and utilized by Hamas.
The IDF has not advised that there was every other digital camera on the balcony.
The unnamed supply pointed to a white towel positioned over the digital camera as proof that it was being hid.
Picture:
An undated aerial {photograph} exhibiting a digital camera on the stairwell of Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis. Pic: Channel 12
Reuters had been delivering every day livestreams from the place for a number of weeks earlier than the assault.
And the video beneath, uploaded on 10 June, reveals a number of journalists utilizing the area to file video or get cellphone sign.
Amongst these seen within the video are journalists Mariam Abu Daqqa and Mohammed Salama, who have been killed in Monday’s assault.
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“This is among the deadliest Israeli attacks on journalists working for international media since the Gaza war began,” the International Press Affiliation stated in an announcement on Monday, including the strikes got here “with no warning”.
Brian Finucane, who spent a decade advising the US State Division on battle regulation, says hospitals are protected against assault beneath worldwide regulation.
“Hospitals may lose this protection if they are used to commit acts harmful to the enemy outside of their normal humanitarian function – but only if prior advance warning is given to allow for the termination of such harmful acts,” he says.
Hamas denied utilizing the digital camera focused by the IDF, describing this allegation as “a baseless allegation devoid of any evidence, intended solely to evade legal and moral responsibility for a fully-fledged massacre”.
Who was killed?
In its assertion on Tuesday, the IDF stated that six of these killed have been “terrorists” and a part of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
We discovered proof that a kind of named, Omar Abu Teim, had been a combatant.
However whereas obituaries by household and buddies of the opposite 5 people all reference the assault on Nasser Hospital, these for Abu Teim don’t.
A neighbour and childhood pal of Abu Teim’s instructed us he had died whereas participating in an assault on a brand new IDF place east of Khan Younis – not at Nasser Hospital.
Picture:
Omar Abu Teim’s neighbour instructed Sky Information that he was killed whereas preventing the IDF east of Khan Younis.
Hamas has denied that any of its fighters have been killed within the assault on Nasser Hospital.
No rationalization given for second strike
The Israeli navy has not defined the explanation for the second strike on the stairwell, which occurred whereas rescue efforts have been beneath approach and brought on the best variety of deaths.
Such ‘double-tap’ strikes carry vital dangers for emergency personnel and journalists, who usually collect on the scene of assaults.
Emily Tripp, government director of battle monitoring group Airwars, says that double-tap strikes are one thing they’ve seen “consistently” all through the battle, though the depth of the bombardment has made it troublesome to substantiate timings.
Her staff has documented 24 separate double-tap strikes throughout Gaza for the reason that battle started.
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No less than 190 journalists have been killed in Gaza for the reason that battle started, based on the Committee to Shield Journalists.
The Assist Employee Safety Database has additionally documented 536 killings of help and rescue staff as of two August. This quantity doesn’t embrace the 139 reported deaths amongst staff from Gaza’s Civil Defence rescue company.
Reuters didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Extra reporting by Freya Gibson, OSINT producer, and manufacturing by Michelle Inez Simon and Celine Al Khaldi.
