Israel kills journalist Hassan Eslaih on his hospital bed

The Israeli military killed Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih in the early hours of Tuesday morning as he lay in his hospital bed.

Eslaih was among the most prominent and prolific reporters in Gaza who documented the devastation of Israel’s occupation since before its genocidal war began, contributing extensive reporting as well to Mada Masr’s coverage of the war.

He was killed by an airstrike directly targeting the burns ward at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, where he was recovering from an earlier attack in which Israel had attempted to assassinate him. The Occupation military sought to justify the attempt at the time by claiming Hassan was affiliated with Hamas.

With his death, a total of 215 Palestinian journalists have now been killed by Israel since October, 2023, the Government Media Office in Gaza said on Tuesday, condemning the dual attack on journalists and medical facilities as a war crime and a crime against humanity.

Fellow journalists who witnessed the moment Eslaih was killed spoke to Mada Masr about the attack on Tuesday morning.

Adly Taha and Ibrahim Qanan, two journalists who were at the scene at the time of the attack, told Mada Masr that a huge explosion was heard at 3 am inside Nasser Medical Complex. Shrapnel from the blast flew everywhere, even reaching the journalists' tents near the complex.

Moments later, it became clear that the target was the fourth floor of the hospital, where the burns unit was located and where Eslaih was receiving treatment, they said.

“We immediately rushed with the paramedics to the room where Hassan was staying. It was pitch black, but we could see how devastated the place was and how much rubble was everywhere through the lights on our phones,” Taha explained.

“Hassan was still in his bed, completely covered in rubble. We quickly began to remove the rubble off of him, and we discovered that he was still alive and breathing with difficulty.”

“We and the paramedics quickly transferred him to the emergency room. The doctors tried to revive his heart and perform CPR, but it was only a few moments before he passed away.”

Taha said it wasn’t clear to him what Israel used to assassinate Eslaih, but he suggested, based on the shape of the shrapnel, that the attack was carried out by a suicide drone.

This was the fifth time the Occupation forces had attempted to assassinate Eslaih, Taha noted. The first time was when Israel bombed his home and his family's home, followed by the homes of his two brothers. They also attempted to assassinate him last month, when they targeted journalists' tents near Nasser complex, wounding him and 15 others and killing two journalists.

The Israeli military followed up today’s raid with a statement claiming to have targeted a Hamas command and control center within the complex, without mentioning Eslaih.

After the attack in April, the Occupation military claimed Eslaih is affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and operates “under the guise of a journalist and owner of a newspaper company.”

Eslaih faced an Israeli incitement campaign over recent months that framed his media coverage of the October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as proof of military activity. This was echoed last week by Israeli organization Honest Reporting, which also called on several international news agencies to end their cooperation with him.

In an interview about the accusations, Eslaih said they were the same old story, a way of attempting to justify the aggression. “I didn’t take part in anything.”

“We feel deep sadness over the loss of Hassan. Hassan was one of the journalists who ignored the incitement campaigns and successive threats he received since the first day of the war of extermination. The Occupation attempted to assassinate him more than once. None of this prevented him from continuing his work with passion and dedication,” Qanan said.

“The occupation fought Hassan everywhere, and suspended his online accounts in an attempt to hinder his work, but he didn't care.”

“We knew the extent of the danger threatening him, and we were worried for his life. But at the same time, we knew how much he loved and was dedicated to the profession of journalism, so he wouldn't give in to any of the Occupation's threats,” he added.

Tuesday’s strike also killed Brigadier General Ahmed al-Qedra, director of the Anti-Narcotics Police and a member of the Police Command Council at the Interior Ministry in Gaza, who was in the same hospital room as Eslaih, a statement from the ministry said today.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate condemned Eslaih's assassination today, which it said falls within the framework of a systematic Israeli policy of killing journalists and preventing the publication of the truth. For its part, Hamas said today that Eslaih's assassination while receiving medical treatment was a double war crime that reflects Israeli sadism and a systematic insistence on suppressing the truth.

Eslaih began contributing to Mada Masr in the early months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, alongside his work with other media outlets. Over nearly two years, he documented the devastation caused by the ongoing Israeli airstrikes, from interviews he conducted with displaced Palestinians in Rafah and Khan Younis to photographs capturing the brutal living conditions of displaced people in Mawasi’s tents during the harsh winter months and stories from a makeshift school established to keep children learning during the war.

Through his personal social media accounts, where he had hundreds of thousands of followers, Eslaih captured scenes of daily life amid the war, including festive moments at Eid prayers and a kahk-making session for young children. Aerial images he captured documented the historic return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to northern Gaza during the ceasefire.

Eslaih's death today comes nearly a week after the deaths of journalists Nour Eddin Abdo and Yahya Subeih, who were killed in two separate Israeli bombings, one targeting a school sheltering displaced people and another a restaurant and a popular market, during a bloody day in which about 92 people were killed by intensive Israeli airstrikes.