Middle East Eye editor writes to British PM over killing of MEE journalists

David Hearst has put a series of questions to Keir Starmer after Israel killed two MEE reporters in Gaza on Monday

Middle East Eye's editor in chief, David Hearst, has written to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a series of questions after Israel killed two MEE journalists (MEE)

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Middle East Eye's editor-in-chief, David Hearst, has written to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a series of questions after Israel killed two MEE journalists in Gaza on Monday morning.

Mohamed Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz were killed as they responded to an Israeli attack on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

At least three other journalists were among the 20 Palestinians murdered in the attacks, including Mariam Dagga, a freelance reporter who worked with several media outlets including the Associated Press and Independent Arabia; Hussam al-Masri, a photojournalist with the Reuters news agency; and freelance reporter Moaz Abu Taha.

MEE is a UK-based organisation. In Hearst's open letter on Wednesday, he tells the prime minister that "Middle East Eye has information which directly links the assassination of these journalists to several of the stories they wrote, which caused the Israeli authorities considerable embarrassment".

Hearst adds: "MEE knows the full sequence of events which led to the targeting of these journalists, the stories they wrote which attracted Israel’s attention, the means, the location and the time at which Israeli authorities obtained their identities.

"We will not divulge these details for fear of endangering the lives of survivors of the attacks."

MEE reported earlier on Thursday that US contractors at a Gaza aid centre interrogated a source used by Salama in one of his major investigations for MEE, seeking information about the reporter's identity and whereabouts before he was killed.

In his letter, Hearst asks Starmer whether he will demand an international investigation into Israel's repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza.

He further asks whether the Foreign Office has summoned the Israeli ambassador over this week's attacks.

Hearst questions whether the British government "hold any information on the attack gathered as a result of surveillance flights over Gaza" - and if so, whether it will provide that information to the International Criminal Court.

'Your steadfast support for Israel'

In the letter, Hearst tells Starmer: "You are the leader of the country that helped lay the foundations for the State of Israel, as your Foreign Secretary told the UN Two-State Solution Conference on Gaza and the Recognition of a Palestinian State in New York last month."

Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the UN conference that the 1917 Balfour declaration came with the promise "that nothing shall be done, nothing which may prejudice the civil and religious rights" of the Palestinian people.

Lammy asserted that "this has not been upheld and it is a historical injustice which continues to unfold".

Hearst asks Starmer: "I wonder how you think you have discharged Britain’s duty to correct this 'historic injustice' to the Palestinian people in the last 22 months of Israel’s war in Gaza."

He details several aspects of Britain's military cooperation with Israel under the Labour government.

'Mr Prime Minister, this is genocide happening on your watch'

- David Hearst to Keir Starmer

"Your government has exempted licenses for parts for F-35 fighter jets, which are directly used in Gaza, from an arms embargo on Israel," Hearst says.

He writes that MEE asked the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 13 August whether it held information gethered by a spy plane over Gaza on 10 August. "On that day six journalists - including Middle East Eye contributor Mohammed Qreiqeh - were killed in an Israeli strike."

He notes that the MoD refused to disclose this.

"Mr Prime Minister," Hearst writes, "your steadfast support for Israel on Gaza is not without its consequences."

He notes that "at least 246 journalists have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which we, along with the majority of legal expert opinion, including notable scholars of The Holocaust, deem to be a genocide.

"Mr Prime Minister, this is genocide happening on your watch."

Hearst puts a final, broader, question to Starmer:

"If the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 doomed the otherwise successful prime ministership of your mentor Tony Blair, how long will be the shadow cast by Gaza over your period in office?"

Below is the letter in full:

Dear Prime Minister,

You are the leader of the country that helped lay the foundations for the State of Israel, as your Foreign Secretary told the UN Two-State Solution Conference on Gaza and the Recognition of a Palestinian State in New York last month.

Mr Lammy stated that the 1917 Balfour declaration came with the promise “that nothing shall be done, nothing which may prejudice the civil and religious rights” of the Palestinian people.

He correctly asserted that “this has not been upheld and it is a historical injustice which continues to unfold”.

I wonder how you think you have discharged Britain’s duty to correct this “historic injustice” to the Palestinian people in the last 22 months of Israel’s war in Gaza.

At the start of Israel’s campaign in October 2023, you, as leader of the opposition backed Israel’s actions.

You said in the same month that Israel “has the right” to withhold water and electricity from besieged Palestinians in Gaza. These are comments for which you have never publicly apologised, although you did so, in private, to your cabinet colleagues.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for one, took you at your word, and the result is this month a famine has been officially declared by the UN in Gaza.

The following month, you ordered your party not to back a Scottish National Party motion that called for an “end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

In early 2024, you reportedly lobbied the speaker of the house, Lindsay Hoyle, to break with precedent and let a watered-down Labour motion on Gaza be debated before an SNP motion calling for a ceasefire, effectively killing it.

We note that in July last year, your government withdrew the UK’s objection to the ICC application for Israeli leaders and restored funding to UNWRA, but wonder what practical effect either measure has had.

Exclusive: US contractors in Gaza pursued MEE journalist before his killing

Israel’s campaign to expel over a million Palestinians from Gaza has not dimmed your government’s appetite to roll out the welcome mat for the very same Israeli leaders who are attempting to organise this pogrom.

On 25 November, Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi flew to Britain on a secret trip and met Lord Richard Hermer, your attorney general. Your government gave Halevi special mission immunity for the trip.

In mid-April, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar made a clandestine trip to the UK and met the Foreign Secretary. This was just days after Israeli authorities detained and deported Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, two MPs from your own party.

Furthermore, your government continues loyally to arm Israel in the midst of the daily carnage endured by Palestinians in Gaza.

Your government has exempted licenses for parts for F-35 fighter jets, which are directly used in Gaza, from an arms embargo on Israel.

On 19 September, your government abstained on a UN resolution demanding that Israel end its "unlawful presence" in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip within a year.

Furthermore, aircraft from Britain's Royal Air Force have conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza in the last two years. Your government recently spent taxpayers' money to hire American contractors for surveillance flights over Gaza.

In April this year the family of British aid worker James Kirby, who was killed by an Israeli drone strike in April 2024, criticised your government for refusing to release information about the attack gathered by RAF surveillance.

In May, the Ministry of Defence blocked Kim Johnson - an MP in your party - from asking about “Israeli government access to the use of [the] RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus” in Parliament.

We at Middle East Eye asked the Ministry of Defence earlier this year whether it holds video footage taken by spy planes of two Israeli attacks in Gaza on British citizens or volunteers working for British charities.

The MoD refused to disclose this, citing national security and defence exemptions.

On 13 August, we asked the MoD whether it holds information gathered by a spy plane over Gaza on 10 August.

This was on the day that six journalists - including Middle East Eye contributor Mohammed Qreiqeh - were killed in an Israeli strike. The Ministry of Defence again refused to disclose this.

Mr Prime Minister, your steadfast support for Israel on Gaza is not without its consequences.

On Monday, Israeli forces killed two of our journalists, Mohamed Salama and Ahmed Abu Aziz, in the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.

At least three other journalists were among the 20 Palestinians murdered in the attack, including Mariam Dagga, a freelance reporter who worked with several media outlets including the Associated Press and Independent Arabia; Hussam al-Masri, a photojournalist with the Reuters news agency; and freelance reporter Moaz Abu Taha.

They were the targets of an Israeli double-tap missile strike, aimed at first responders and journalists covering an attack only minutes earlier on one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza.

Middle East Eye has information which directly links the assassination of these journalists to several of the stories they wrote, which caused the Israeli authorities considerable embarrassment. I do not write these words lightly.

I repeat. The deaths of these journalists were targeted, not the result of a “tragic mishap”, as it has been described by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

MEE knows the full sequence of events which led to the targeting of these journalists, the stories they wrote which attracted Israel’s attention, the means, the location and the time at which Israeli authorities obtained their identities.

We will not divulge these details for fear of endangering the lives of survivors of the attacks.

I note that on 11 August, your spokesperson expressed concern at the “repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza”.

At time of writing, at least 246 journalists have been killed since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which we, along with the majority of legal expert opinion, including notable scholars of The Holocaust, deem to be a genocide.

Mr Prime Minister, this is genocide happening on your watch.

You pay lip service to Palestinians in Gaza and for most of your period as Labour leader have refused to meet with UK based organisations that represent British Palestinians.

You have not dared display the same disdain to leaders of Britain’s Jewish community. We therefore put five questions to you:

Will you demand an international investigation into Israel’s repeated targeting of journalists in Gaza?
Has the Foreign Office summoned the Israeli ambassador over this week’s fatal attack on MEE journalists?
Does your government hold any information on the attack gathered as a result of surveillance flights over Gaza?
If so, will your government provide that information to the International Criminal Court?
Will your government continue to share intelligence from surveillance flights with the Israeli military?

There is a sixth, which I fear you may not be able to answer.

If the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 doomed the otherwise successful prime ministership of your mentor Tony Blair, how long will be the shadow cast by Gaza over your period in office?

Yours,

David Hearst
Editor in Chief
Middle East Eye

UK Politics

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Middle East Eye editor writes to British PM over killing of MEE journalists

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