By Committee To Protect Journalists
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for an independent investigation into the Israeli attack on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital that injured at least eight journalists on assignment.
On Sunday, March 31, around 11:30 a.m., an Israeli strike hit a tent encampment outside of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. The attack killed four and injured 17, including eight journalists, according to several media reports, and four sources who spoke to CPJ, including two of the injured journalists, another who witnessed the attack, and one who went to the site afterward. The explosion, which witnesses and media reports said was caused by a drone strike, occurred outside the hospital near a journalists’ tent provided by the Turkish Anadolu news agency.
One of the injured journalists, Al-Jazeera photographer Hazem Mazeed, told CPJ that many journalists’ equipment was destroyed in the attacks, including cameras, laptops, and mobile phones – items that are increasingly hard to replace in Gaza.
Mazeed told CPJ that journalists in Gaza see hospitals as a relatively safe place to work, but that recent Israeli attacks on hospitals have shaken their confidence in using them as venues to conduct journalism.
More on the Israel-Gaza war:
–Journalist describes 33 harrowing days in Israeli custody
–Gaza journalists struggle, ‘expect to die daily’
–Full coverage of the war
