Palestinian TV reporter and eleven relatives murdered in Gaza
Mohammed Abu Hatab, a correspondent for a Palestinian television channel, and eleven members of his family were killed on Thursday in the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Palestine TV, where Abu Hatab worked and is run by the Palestinian Authority, said they were killed at home by an Israeli airstrike. On Friday evening, the Israeli military said that after an investigation it was “not aware of any military activity conducted by our forces near the location in question.”
Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, said Mr Abu Hatab’s wife, son and brother were among the dead.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said more media workers have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas than in any other conflict in the region since it began monitoring the media. facts in 1992. As of Friday, 36 media workers – 31 Palestinians, four Israelis and one Lebanese – have been killed since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. the group said.
Photos showed people searching through the rubble of the house on Thursday and Friday, unearthing remnants of the family’s daily life. At Abu Hatab’s funeral on Friday, dozens of relatives, friends and fellow journalists wept and prayed over his shrouded body. On top of it rested a blue body armor and a microphone.
One of Mr Abu Hatab’s colleagues at Palestine TV, Salman Al-Bashir, discussed his death on Thursday in an emotional broadcast also aired by the channel. Posted on social media. Speaking from the Nasser Hospital mortuary, Mr. Al-Bashir, his voice breaking, removed his press vest and helmet as he complained that not even protective equipment — the body armor reads “Press” in blue capital letters — has kept journalists alive.
An initial investigation by Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog group, released on Monday found that Issam Abdallah, a visual journalist for Reuters who was killed on October 13, was “targeted” by a strike the group said originated the Israeli border. The Israeli military said it was assessing the incident, adding that its proximity to combat areas “poses a serious risk to life.”
Last week, the Israeli army wrote in a letter to the news agencies Reuters and Agence France-Presse said that it could not guarantee the safety of reporters in Gaza because “Hamas has placed its military operations in close proximity to civilians and journalists.”
Journalists on the ground in Gaza reporting the daily horrors of war have faced the terrifying possibility of losing their lives or their families. Wael al-Dahdouh, head of the Gaza bureau of Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language service, learned while at work that several members of his family had been killed. the news organization said.
While reporting live from Gaza City on October 25, Mr al-Dahdouh was told that at least four members had been killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where they had been sheltered, by what Al Jazeera’s parent company said was an Israeli called army. air raid. He allowed Al Jazeera cameras to film him with some of their bodies in the morgue of a local hospital.
Yousur Al-Hlou reporting contributed.