Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss / July 23, 2024
An Israeli strike targeted a tent inside the courtyard of a hospital in the central Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian journalist. Eyewitnesses told Mondoweiss the strike was precise, hitting only the tent shelter that was clearly marked as ‘press’.
On Monday morning, July 24, an Israeli strike targeted a tent housing journalists inside the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and injuring two others.
According to witnesses and those familiar with the area, the tent that was targeted had a ‘press’ sign hanging on its door, and was known in and around the hospital as the tent where press would stay.
The tents adjacent to the journalists’ tent were not targeted, and the people sheltering inside were reportedly not harmed. The precise nature of the strike led many to believe that it was a targeted drone attack on the journalists. Mondoweiss could not independently confirm the nature of the strike.
Video clips of the explosion and its aftermath were published on social media, showing the journalist’s equipment, press vests, helmet, laptop, and camera strewn inside the tent, while a man lays on the ground, his head burned and some of his organs spilling out. He was identified as Hidar al-Mussader, a lecturer at Gaza University, and a researcher and writer whose work had been published on Al Jazeera. The Gaza media office identified al-Mussader as a journalist and member of the press.
The attack on the journalist tent was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on the press since, and before, October 7th. Throughout Israel’s war on Gaza, it has targeted Palestinian journalists in Gaza and Lebanese journalists in southern Lebanon in their field of work, in their homes with their families, and in journalists’ tents and shelters like the one at the Al-Aqsa martyrs hospital.
The number of journalists killed by Israel since the beginning of the war has reached 163.
The government media office in the Gaza Strip issued a brief statement after the bombing of the journalists’ tent on Monday, in which it said that the number of journalists killed by Israel since the beginning of the war had reached 163 journalists.
Earlier this year, a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) noted that more than 75% of all journalists killed around the world in 2023 were killed in the Gaza war.
In addition to the deliberate killing of journalists in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army has arrested dozens of journalists in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war, some of whom remain unaccounted for.
Despite the frequent attacks on journalists, Monday’s bombing struck a nerve among journalists in the area. Hanu Abu Rizq was just a few tents away when the bombing occurred. “I was surprised, despite my prior knowledge that the Israeli army targets journalists and does not differentiate between a journalist, a displaced person, a rescuer, or a citizen,” Abu Rizq told Mondoweiss. “Everyone is targeted in the Gaza Strip.”
Hani confirmed what other witnesses in the area said: that there was a sign on the “door” of the tent clearly marking that it was a tent for journalists. “We were stunned by the sound of the missile, only to discover that a journalist was killed and two others were injured,” Abu Rizq recounted of the moment the strike hit.
“Fortunately, the missile was of a light caliber,” he continued, decrying the fact that the journalist was targeted on the grounds of a hospital, which is currently sheltering thousands of displaced civilians. “If it had been of a heavy caliber, it would have killed hundreds in this place, which is overcrowded with tents for the displaced.”
Abu Rizq lamented the killing of Hidar al-Mussader on Monday, saying that each time a journalist is killed, it makes his work, and the work of other journalists in Gaza, that much more difficult. “When you see your colleague dead or injured, you then try to avoid going to the places he went to and avoid talking about the topics he was talking about.”
“But despite all this fear, we continue to convey the image to the world. My national, emotional, and social duty motivates me to continue working,” Abu Rizq said.
“Everything around me forces me to continue. Especially in the memory of so many of my colleagues who were with us, working together, laughing together, and eating together, until the Israeli army killed them. We are here to continue their path and convey the messages of the Palestinian people to the world, and to convey the barbarity of the Israeli occupation.”
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union
