Israel aimed to kill photojournalist Hassan Eslaih in airstrike on press workers’ tent

Israel’s military said on Monday that it was aiming to kill journalist Hassan Eslaih in the operation it conducted shortly after midnight, targeting a tent where more than 10 journalists were sheltering with an airstrike that killed two and injured Eslaih as well as eight others.

Eslaih is a photojournalist and videographer who has made regular contributions to Mada Masr as well as other regional and international outlets since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in 2023, documenting the dire humanitarian conditions in south Gaza.

In a statement published on Monday afternoon, the Israeli military claimed Eslaih is a “Hamas terrorist” and justified its attack on the tent by saying it used precision munitions, surveillance and intelligence. It did not mention the two people who were killed in the Monday airstrike, one of whom was also a journalist.

Over the course of its genocidal war on the strip, Israel has singled out, threatened, pursued and killed dozens of Palestinian journalists who it accuses of affiliation with Hamas.

In the targeting of Eslaih at around 2 am, Israeli warplanes bombed the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex, striking the press-workers’ tent and killing journalist Helmi al-Faqaawi and a young man named Youssef al-Khazindar.

Videos shared on social media showed dozens attending funerals that were held for both of the deceased outside the hospital, located in the west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, later on Monday.

Footage from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed the tent engulfed in flames with one man still trapped inside, as others attempted to pull him out of the fire, throwing water and blankets in bids to quench the flames.

One of the journalists who was at the scene, and who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, said that the trapped journalist was Ahmed Mansour, and that colleagues and other people gathered at the scene rushed to try and rescue him.

The intensity of the fire and the extreme heat prevented them from pulling him out, said the journalist, until, by what they described as divine providence, Mansour was rescued at the last moment.

Mansour is now in the intensive care unit at Nasser Hospital with severe burns, the journalist said, adding that the medical staff told them his condition is extremely critical.

Also wounded in the attack are journalists Ali Eslaih, Ahmad al-Agha, Mohamed Fayeq, Abdallah al-Attar, Ehab al-Bardini, Mahmoud Awad and Majed Qudeih.

Hassan Eslaih sustained injuries to his head and hands, and after receiving treatment was transferred to the European Hospital for ongoing care. Mada Masr was unable to reach him on Monday to check on his health condition.

Eslaih, originally from Khan Younis, began to contribute photojournalism and video reporting to Mada Masr in the first months of the war.

During almost two years of devastating aggression on the strip, he has reported stories that include the immediate aftermath of countless airstrikes and successive waves of displacement, often filming interviews with Palestinians from Rafah, Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah as they carried their belongings from place to place seeking shelter from repeated Israeli evacuation orders. 

He also captured scenes on the coast in Mawasi of days lived by the displaced in tents during harsh weather conditions in the winter, the story of a family whose tent was struck by aerial aid drops on the strip while the borders were closed and teachers’ efforts to set up temporary community schools amid the rubble to support children to continue learning. 

On his personal social media accounts, where he is followed by hundreds of thousands of people, Eslaih also posted scenes ranging from records of daily life to historically unprecedented events, from the hairdressers the day before Eid to the widely shared sweeping aerial photography that documented the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza’s north during the ceasefire.

The attack on the sleeping journalists continues an increasingly aggressive series of assaults in which Israeli forces have targeted and killed over 200 journalists working in Gaza to cover the genocide.

Faqaawi, a reporter for Palestine Today, became the 210th Palestinian journalist killed since the start of the war, according to a Monday statement by the Gaza Government Media Office. 

Since Israel renewed its aggression on Gaza in the wake of a short-lived ceasefire, it has intensified its  bombing on all areas of the strip while ordering the evacuation of large areas of Rafah in the south and most of Gaza’s northeast, forcing Palestinians who were able to escape the bombardment into an increasingly small area along the coastline.

At the same time, it has directly targeted and killed journalists documenting the forced displacement, executions and abductions its forces have perpetrated — often acknowledging the attacks and claiming that the journalists are terrorists, as in the case of Eslaih.

Only 24 hours before the strike on the tent, Israel killed journalist Islam Miqdad and her child in an airstrike on Khan Younis.

Last month, Al-Jazeera Mubasher journalist Hossam Shabat was killed in a targeted airstrike in the northeast of the strip, on the same day that Palestine Today reporter Mohamed Mansour was targeted and killed in his home.