New York Times investigation discredits Israeli 'justification' for Nasser Hospital attacks
New York Times investigation discredits Israeli 'justification' for Nasser Hospital attacks
A New York Times investigation into the Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital last week that killed at least 20 people, including two Middle East Eye journalists, casts doubt on Israel’s rationale for the attacks.
“An analysis of video evidence and footage from the scene raises questions about what they [Israel] were targeting to begin with and why they launched a second attack that killed first responders and more journalists,” The New York Times said in a video published on Sunday.
MEE journalists Ahmed Abu Aziz and Mohamed Salama were killed by Israel along with three other journalists as they responded to the attack on the hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. The attack killed at least 20 Palestinians, including medics and first responders.
The NYT’s video analysis showed that Israel first struck the hospital in two different locations, including an outdoor staircase that Palestinian journalists, including the Reuters and the Associated Press, used to broadcast a livestream on Khan Younis.
The Israeli military said that Golani Brigade troops were targeting a camera used by Hamas, providing no evidence or explanation for the second strike 15 minutes after the first.
Israel regularly uses language blaming Hamas to justify its attacks on civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, shelters and schools.
Hospitals and journalists are protected from attacks by militaries under the International Law of Armed Conflict. Under some circumstances, hospitals can lose that status, but the burden of proof is set exceptionally high for such cases.
The NYT found that even Israel’s initial justification for the attacks was discredited by its own actions. Israel initially bombed two different locations at the hospital.
“It’s unclear why the Israeli military hit two separate staircases at a hospital when they only said they were targeting one Hamas operated camera,” the NYT said.
The only camera visible after the Israeli attack in the video analysed by the NYT was one belonging to Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri. The NYT said no “surveillance camera was visible”.
Journalists and first responders rushed to the east-facing outdoor staircases. In the video footage, several rescue workers can be seen wearing safety vests.
Two Palestinian journalists, Mariam Abu Daqqa, an AP reporter, and Hatem Khaled, a Reuters photographer, can be seen.
The latter’s footage shows a “chaotic rescue operation on the stairway with no sign of a military threat”, the NYT noted.
Israel’s double-tap strike on the stairway occurred nine minutes after the first attack and included two projectiles fired in rapid succession.
Double-tap strikes like the one Israel did on Nasser Hospital are a tried and tested way for militaries to kill journalists and first responders, who are usually the first to rush to attack sites. Russia has used similar attacks in Ukraine and has been widely condemned by western governments for them.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a “tragic mishap”, but there has been no public follow-up to punish the Golani Brigade or contact the Palestinian victims’ families.
Channel 14, a right-wing outlet known to be supportive of Netanyahu’s government and the war on Gaza, reported military sources as saying the attack killed "terrorists disguised as journalists".
The sources said that soldiers targeted a Hamas "terror headquarters" in Nasser Hospital.
"According to the current security concept, any place where terrorists operate, whether it used to be a school or a hospital, becomes a legitimate target," the report said.
The world's leading genocide scholars' association on Monday said Israel has met the legal criteria for genocide during its ongoing assault on Gaza.
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