By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hatem Khaled
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -An Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday killed a well-known Palestinian journalist whom it accused of working with Hamas and was recovering in hospital from an earlier strike, the territory’s health ministry said.
Israel has accused Hassan Aslih, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media platforms, of taking part in the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
It has said Aslih documented and uploaded footage of “looting, arson and murder” during the Hamas-led incursion into Israel.
Ahmed Siyyam, a Gaza civil emergency service member, told Reuters the attack hit the third floor of a Nasser Hospital building in the southern city of Khan Younis, where dozens of patients and injured were being treated.
Two patients, including Aslih, were killed and several others were wounded, the health ministry said.
Later on Tuesday, the Gaza health ministry also said nine missiles slammed into and around the courtyard of the Gaza European Hospital in the south of the enclave, killing at least 16 people and wounding 70 others.
Israel’s military said it hit a “Hamas command center” beneath the hospital. Hamas denies exploiting hospitals and civilian properties for military purposes.
In a separate statement about the Nasser Hospital strike, the Israeli military said it “eliminated significant Hamas terrorists” in Nasser Hospital, among them Aslih, who it said had “operated under the guise of a journalist”.
HEAVY DAMAGE
Reuters footage showed heavy damage to one of the Nasser hospital buildings, including to the medical equipment and beds inside.
“I came to the hospital not knowing whether to mourn the martyrs, treat the patients and injured, or deal with the staff who no longer feel safe,” said Atef Al-Hout, director of Nasser Hospital.
According to the International Federation of Journalists, at least 160 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
Officials in Gaza, where Hamas took control in 2007, put the number at 215, and accuse Israel of deliberately targeting journalists. Israel denies this and says it tries to avoid harm to civilians.
Aslih headed the Alam24 news outlet and worked as a freelance photojournalist. He had previously worked with several Western news organizations. He was wounded last month in a deadly strike on a tent in the Nasser hospital compound.
Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s response has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and destroyed much of the enclave.
A blockade on aid supplies since March 2 has left the population at critical risk of famine, according to a U.N.-backed monitor.
A senior World Health Organization official warned on Tuesday that hunger and malnutrition could have a lasting impact on “an entire generation”.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Hussam al-Masri and Hatem Khaled in Gaza and May Angel in Jerusalem; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Gareth Jones, Mark Potter and Daniel Wallis)
