Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih was killed on Tuesday in an early morning air strike on Al Nasser Hospital, in southern Gaza, as he was being treated for injuries from a previous Israeli attack at the same site last month.
The Israeli military named Eslaih, 38, as the target of its April 7 strike on tents used by Palestinian media in the hospital compound, with the attack killing two of his fellow journalists. After the latest strike on Tuesday, the military said only that it targeted members of Hamas who were “operating in a command and control complex established in the area” of the hospital, in Khan Younis.
Images of the scene of the strike, which also injured civilians, showed a hospital ward littered with rubble and damaged wiring and pipes.
Israel accused Eslaih of participating in the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, that led to the devastating war in Gaza. He took a photo next to an Israeli tank and live-streamed video of people crossing the border into southern Israel.
Eslaih, originally from Khan Younis, worked as freelancer for local and international media. He also had a wide reach on social media, with about 580,000 followers on Instagram. He was married with a son and three daughters.
His death increases the number of journalists killed since the start of the war to 213, the Wafa news agency reported. Local journalists are a key source of information on the effects of the conflict after Israel restricted access to international media outlets.
The Palestinian Journalists Protection Centre condemned Eslaih's killing as “a heinous assassination” and called for an urgent international investigation.
“We call for immediate legal and field protections for Palestinian journalists and for those responsible to be held accountable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” the centre said.
Journalist Hani Al Shaeer, a close friend of Eslaih, said “he was kind. He was simple. And he was brave".
“After he was targeted and injured, we begged him to stay in a safe place and focus on his recovery, but he insisted on continuing. He believed the truth had to be told," Al Shaeer told The National.
Israel "tried to silence him in every way", including getting his social media accounts shut down through complaints, Al Shaeer added. “But he carried on. He was worried, of course. But he never backed down.”
As news of his death spread, social media was flooded with tributes, as well as photos and videos highlighting his work. "Hassan didn’t just write reports, he was writing history. He documented with his own blood what the machinery of war tried to erase," Facebook user Mohammed Awad said in a post.
Al Shaeer said Eslaih "moved tirelessly between the north and south of Gaza, carrying the stories of the people, sharing the truth when few could. Today, we didn’t just lose a journalist. We lost a lifeline. A voice. A friend.”
