Israel admits killing journalist in Gaza hospital bomb, saying he 'documented' 7 October massacre

LAST UPDATE | 8 hrs ago

THE ISRAELI MILITARY has admitted that it killed a Palestinian journalist who was being treated in hospital, labelling Hassan Aslih as a “terrorist”. 

Aslih was one of two people killed yesterday morning when the Israeli military struck the Gaza hospital where he was being treated for wounds sustained in another Israeli attack last month, which had targeted him specifically.  

A spokesman for the Gaza civil defence agency, said “the Israeli army bombed the surgery building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis at dawn on Tuesday, killing journalist Hassan Aslih”.

In a statement last night, the IDF said that Aslih was a “a terrorist from the Hamas Khan Yunis brigade”. Citing as evidence for this, the IDF said that Aslih had “participated” in the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack because he “documented acts of murder, looting, and arson”.  

Hassan Aslih’s name has now been added to the list of at least 178 journalists and media workers who have been killed during Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023. 

A further 38 journalists have been imprisoned since the start of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which has condemned this morning’s attack. 

As early as February 2024, a panel of UN experts said the Israeli war on Gaza was the deadliest and most dangerous conflict for journalists in recent history. 

A statement on CPJ’s website says: “Palestinian journalists have continued reporting despite killings, injuries, and arbitrary detention at the hands of Israeli forces, none of whom have been held accountable.”

The Israeli military has confirmed it targeted Nasser hospital, calling it a Hamas “command and control centre”, using the same language with which it has justified the bombing of hospitals throughout its war on the Gaza Strip. 

Aslih was the head of the Alam24 news outlet and was specifically targeted by the Israeli military when it bombed a media camp near Nasser Hospital on 7 April.

Two other journalists, Ahmed Mansur and Hilmi al-Faqaawi, were killed in that bombing.

The Israeli military said the April strike had targeted Aslih, a well-known reporter in Gaza, alleging he worked for Hamas “under the guise of a journalist”.

Aslih worked as a freelance photojournalist for CNN, the Associated Press (AP) and a number of other news outlets. CNN and AP severed ties with him following complaints about his reporting from Israel during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023. 

A pro-Israel media watchdog called Honest Reporting – which says its mission is to expose “anti-Israel media bias” – said that Aslih had filmed a burning IDF tank and documented members of Hamas entering a kibbutz on the day of the attack.

The organisation also published a photo, the date of which is unknown, showing Aslih being kissed on the cheek by the now deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

A CNN spokesperson said at the time said: “While we have not at this time found reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy of the work he has done for us, we have decided to suspend all ties with him.”

In its statement, the Israeli military claimed it had targeted “Hamas terrorists” operating from within Nasser hospital. It did not name the people the strike had targeted, but instead pointed to its assassination of a Hamas political bureau member at the same hospital in March of this year. 

The official, Ismail Barhoum, was also receiving treatment at the hospital when he was killed, Hamas said at the time. 

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Medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said at the time that the Israeli attack showed “a total disregard for the protection of medical facilities, endangered patients and medical staff and the very provision of healthcare”. 

Yesterday, MSF emergency coordinator Claire Manera said: “This attack on a medical complex so close to our medical operations is horrific.”

“It comes as the ongoing siege is already taking its toll on healthcare workers who are struggling to treat patients with little to no supplies.”

The Israeli military claimed that “senior Hamas officials continue to use the hospital for terrorist activity”.  

A hospital worker who gave his first name as Abu Ghali said the Israeli bombardment “does not differentiate between civilians and military targets”.

“This is a civilian hospital that receives injured people around the clock,” he told the AFP news agency.

Throughout the war on Gaza, MSF says its staff have witnessed “relentless attacks on health facilities, a complete disregard for patients, medical workers and International Humanitarian Law, resulting in the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system”. 

The Israeli military has repeatedly claimed that hospitals in Gaza have been used as “command centres” by the militant arm of Hamas, but it has presented scant evidence to back up those claims, even after raiding the hospitals in question. 

The most high-profile example was a computer-generated video released in the early stages of the war of what the military said showed an underground complex beneath the Shifa Hospital. 

After laying siege to and then invading the hospital, Israel provided no evidence of the elaborate complex. 

There are currently no fully functional hospitals in Gaza and Israel’s ongoing blockade of the enclave is contributing to a worsening situation there, where NGOs and UN agencies have warned much of the population is at risk of starvation. 

In a statement issued by MSF earlier this month, the NGO said: 

“Palestinians in Gaza are facing a death sentence.” 

It said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “catastrophic as a result of the Israeli imposed siege for over two months”. 

“Food is running out. Medical supplies are running out.” 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said last week that the Israeli blockade “clearly constitutes a war crime”.

With reporting from Rónán Duffy and AFP

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