Israel kills Palestinian journalist Hassan Eslaih, who reached a large audience with photos of killed babies and destroyed buildings

A video of a bullet -proof press vest and a corpse bag. That was the last message that journalist Hassan Eslaih posted on his Instagram on 6 April. Eslaih had half a million followers on social media and previously also worked for international media. On Tuesday, Israel killed him in a bombing of the Gazan city of Khan Younis.

According to the committee for the protection of journalists, an international non-profit organization, Israel has now killed 178 journalists during the continuous attacks. This serves the war as the deadly conflict for journalists in decades. Journalists are protected under international law.

Esslaih shared images of the concrete consequences of the bloody war almost daily. A large part of the photos were vaguely made and classified by Instagram as ‘sensitive content’. Those who click through will see destroyed buildings, dead babies and displaced Palestinians. He was also director of a local news agency.

Eslaih was killed in a « targeted attack » in the words of the Israeli army at the Nasser hospital where « Hamas terrorists » would hide. Eslaih lay there, according to various international media, including Al Jazeera And associated press, due to injuries due to an earlier attack on him of the Israeli army.

Attack on tent

That was attack barely a month agoa day before his last Instagram message, when the army bombarded a tent used by Palestinian journalists in Khan Younis. Another journalist was killed, Eslaih got away with severe burns. Israel brought out a statement in which it said that it has focused the attack specifically on Eslaih; He would be affiliated with Hamas and only use his journalistic title as a ‘veil’.

So far, the army has not provided any concrete evidence for this. Eslaih reported up close on 7 October, among other things, the attack of Hamas on southern Israel in which more than a thousand Israelis were killed. According to a pro-Israeli media watchdog, his presence during this attack was enough reason to ring the bell among the photographer’s employers, including CNN and AP. The news organizations denied that Eslaih was aware of the attack prematurely. They did, however, suspended the collaboration with the journalist. Eslaih refers to the insinuation to be a terrorist.

In the attack on Tuesday, someone was killed next to Eslaih and hospital staff were injured. Later in the day Israel would also have attacked another hospital in Khan Younis.

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