RSF says journalists 'targeted' in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital
Israeli strikes on a hospital complex in Gaza killed 20 people, including five Palestinian journalists in what the French NGO Reporters without Borders called a "deliberate" attack.
Issued on: 25/08/2025 - RFI
Rescuers work to recover the body of Palestinian cameraman Hussam al-Masri, a freelancer for the Reuters news agency, who was killed with others in Israeli strikes on Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, in this still image taken from a video shot by Reuters freelancer Hatem Khaled, who was wounded shortly afterwards in another strike while he was filming the site, 25 , August 202
5. © Hatem Khaled/Reuters
Strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, a large medical complex in the south of Gaza that is a known gathering place for displaced journalists, according to the press freedom group Reporters without borders (RSF).
Hossam al-Masri, a freelance photographer for the Reuters news agency died in a first drone strike on the hospital Monday morning.
A second strike, eight minute later, killed three other journalists who had arrived at the scene to cover rescue efforts.
They included Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist for the Associated Press news agency; Moaz Abu Taha, a correspondent for the American broadcasting network NBC; and Mohamad Salama, a photojournalist for Al Jazeera.
Freelance journalist Ahmad Abu Aziz died soon after of injuries.
Freelance photographer Hatem Khaled was wounded in the second strike, according to Reuters, as was Palestine TV journalist Jamal Bemdah, according to RSF.
RSF said the journalists were "deliberately targeted" and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to ensure the protection of journalists in Gaza and "that concrete measures are taken to end impunity for crimes against journalists, protect Palestinian journalists, and open access to the Gaza Strip to all reporters".
Strikes hit Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, a large medical complex in the south of Gaza that is a known gathering place for displaced journalists, according to the press freedom group Reporters without borders (RSF).
Hossam al-Masri, a freelance photographer for the Reuters news agency died in a first drone strike on the hospital Monday morning.
A second strike, eight minute later, killed three other journalists who had arrived at the scene to cover rescue efforts.
They included Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist for the Associated Press news agency; Moaz Abu Taha, a correspondent for the American broadcasting network NBC; and Mohamad Salama, a photojournalist for Al Jazeera.
Freelance journalist Ahmad Abu Aziz died soon after of injuries.
Freelance photographer Hatem Khaled was wounded in the second strike, according to Reuters, as was Palestine TV journalist Jamal Bemdah, according to RSF.
RSF said the journalists were "deliberately targeted" and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting to ensure the protection of journalists in Gaza and "that concrete measures are taken to end impunity for crimes against journalists, protect Palestinian journalists, and open access to the Gaza Strip to all reporters".
Shocking indifference
The United Nations insisted that journalists and hospitals should never be targeted.
"The killing of journalists in Gaza should shock the world – not into stunned silence but into action, demanding accountability and justice," UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini described the strike as "silencing the last remaining voices reporting about children dying silently amid famine", adding on social media platform X: "The world's indifference and inaction is shocking."
Following the strike, the Israel-based Foreign Press Association called for an "immediate explanation" from the military and prime minister's office.
"We call on Israel once and for all to halt its abhorrent practice of targeting journalists," the group said in a statement.
The Israeli foreign ministry said on X that troops carried out a strike in the area around the hospital, which has targeted several times since the start of the war.
The military said will conduct an "initial inquiry as soon as possible", the ministry said, adding that it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such".
Recognition for journalists who bear burden of showing world the Gaza war
Media restrictions
Earlier this month an Israeli air strike killed four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers outside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
The Israeli military alleged that one of those killed, Anas al-Sharif, headed a Hamas "terrorist cell" and was "responsible for advancing rocket attacks" against Israelis.
The Committee to protect journalists and RSF slammed that strike, saying journalists should never be targeted in war.
According to the CPJ and other media watchdogs, over 200 journalists have been killed in nearly two years of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, many of them while exercising their profession.
However, media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
(with newswires)
‘We are painted as targets’: How Israel puts Gaza journalists in the crosshairs
Israel’s army is using a secret unit to shape narratives around Gaza, portraying Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives to justify strikes. Analysts say the tactic silences reporters and controls the story in one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists.
Issued on: 25/08/2025 -
FRANCE24
By: Anaelle JONAH
A war of narratives
The pattern has been evident in multiple high-profile cases. In early August, Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif was killed alongside four of his colleagues in a strike outside Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. The Israeli army quickly circulated documents claiming he had been a Hamas operative since 2013. Yet even if taken at face value, the files showed his last contact with Hamas was in 2017 – years before the current war.
Al-Sharif, 28, had spent months covering northern Gaza, reporting on starvation and relentless air strikes. "I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification," he wrote in a message prepared before his death.
Read moreFive Al Jazeera journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, killed in Israeli strike on Gaza
A similar tactic followed the killing of journalist Ismail al-Ghoul in July 2024, along with his cameraman. Weeks later, the army described him as a "Nukhba terrorist", a Hamas special forces branch, citing a 2021 document allegedly retrieved from a Hamas computer. But the same document listed him as receiving his rank in 2007 – when al-Ghoul was just ten years old.
An anonymous journalist working in Gaza told FRANCE 24 the Legitimisation Cell’s tactics are "alarming", saying they put reporters’ lives at risk by linking them to armed groups.
“We already work under constant fear – air strikes, losing colleagues, being silenced. Now the threat is also reputational, stripping us of international support and protection,” the journalist said. “It’s a systematic effort to delegitimise our voices and block the truth about Gaza from reaching the world. We are painted as targets, not professionals reporting the facts.”
In 2024, the organisation Forbidden Stories, which brings together journalists from around the world, investigated the killing of nearly a hundred Palestinian reporters by the Israeli army as part of its Gaza Project.
"The Israeli army participates in disinformation around journalists to suggest that all journalists operating in Gaza are Hamas agents," Executive Director Laurent Richard told Radio France.
"The reality is far more nuanced and complex…It usually starts with rumours and articles on sites close to the Israeli government, claiming a particular journalist is in fact a terrorist. Then, weeks or months later, that journalist is targeted by a drone."
'The worst conflict for reporters'
On Monday, Israel struck southern Gaza’s main hospital twice, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists, according to medical officials. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the strikes as part of Israel’s "progressive elimination of information in Gaza" and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
Controlling the story
Aside from the case of al-Sharif, Israel maintains that its operations do not intentionally target journalists, asserting that air strikes are aimed solely at militants and military infrastructure. The IDF did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the existence or activities of the Legitimisation Cell.
Following the latest hospital strike, the army’s chief of staff ordered a preliminary inquiry, stressing that the IDF "does not in any way target journalists as such".
Read more'Death follows us everywhere': Israel pounds Gaza City as it vows to press on with offensive
But press freedom groups say the pattern is clear: reporters smeared as militants, then killed in strikes justified by those same allegations. For Bregman, the logic is about information control, not battlefield necessity.
"This is all about Hasbara and controlling the narrative Israel wants the world to believe in. It has nothing to do with security and military operations," he said.
Israel extends its control over the Gaza narrative beyond the conflict zone, strictly regulating foreign reporting by allowing access only to journalists embedded with its forces
"This is one of the rare times in modern history when a conflict of this scale cannot be covered by journalists who wish to report from the ground," Richard said. "When a country refuses access to foreign journalists in a war zone, it poses a major democratic problem regarding access to information."
The Legitimisation Cell is more than a PR tool. It embodies the militarisation of information, where every word, image, or report is scrutinised as a potential threat. In this framework, journalists are not just messengers but become targets themselves.
"Being a journalist doesn't mean being a target, but unfortunately the Israeli army tries to label us as such, traumatizing both the public and reporters themselves,” the anonymous reporter said.
Israel’s army is using a secret unit to shape narratives around Gaza, portraying Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives to justify strikes. Analysts say the tactic silences reporters and controls the story in one of the deadliest conflicts for journalists.
Issued on: 25/08/2025 -
FRANCE24
By: Anaelle JONAH
A journalist holds the blood-covered camera belonging to Palestinian photojournalist Mariam Dagga, a journalist killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, during her funeral on August 25, 2025. © AFP
Israel’s war in Gaza has not only been fought with drones, tanks and air strikes. It has also been waged through words, videos and carefully crafted narratives. At the heart of that effort is the army’s shadowy "Legitimisation Cell", a communications unit tasked with shaping international perceptions of the conflict.
According to the independent Israeli media outlet +972 Magazine, its mission is clear: to scour the lives of dead and living journalists for any trace of Hamas links, however tenuous, to justify killing them.
More than a dozen journalists have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza in recent weeks, highlighting what analysts describe as a deliberate military strategy to criminalise Palestinian reporting.
"The key task of the 'Legitimisation Cell' is to undermine the work done by Palestinian journalists and provide the excuse to kill them," said political scientist Ahron Bregman.
The Legitimisation Cell monitors reports from Gaza and pushes out counter-narratives on social media and international airwaves. In practice, it often portrays Palestinian reporters as Hamas operatives – claims that press advocates and analysts say are flimsy at best.
"The links Israel establishes between Palestinian journalists and Hamas are often weak, but in Israel’s Hasbara war [the public diplomacy of Israel voiced by the IDF or the PM's office] it is good enough to justify their killing," Bregman explained.
Israel’s war in Gaza has not only been fought with drones, tanks and air strikes. It has also been waged through words, videos and carefully crafted narratives. At the heart of that effort is the army’s shadowy "Legitimisation Cell", a communications unit tasked with shaping international perceptions of the conflict.
According to the independent Israeli media outlet +972 Magazine, its mission is clear: to scour the lives of dead and living journalists for any trace of Hamas links, however tenuous, to justify killing them.
More than a dozen journalists have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza in recent weeks, highlighting what analysts describe as a deliberate military strategy to criminalise Palestinian reporting.
"The key task of the 'Legitimisation Cell' is to undermine the work done by Palestinian journalists and provide the excuse to kill them," said political scientist Ahron Bregman.
The Legitimisation Cell monitors reports from Gaza and pushes out counter-narratives on social media and international airwaves. In practice, it often portrays Palestinian reporters as Hamas operatives – claims that press advocates and analysts say are flimsy at best.
"The links Israel establishes between Palestinian journalists and Hamas are often weak, but in Israel’s Hasbara war [the public diplomacy of Israel voiced by the IDF or the PM's office] it is good enough to justify their killing," Bregman explained.
A war of narratives
The pattern has been evident in multiple high-profile cases. In early August, Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif was killed alongside four of his colleagues in a strike outside Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital. The Israeli army quickly circulated documents claiming he had been a Hamas operative since 2013. Yet even if taken at face value, the files showed his last contact with Hamas was in 2017 – years before the current war.
Al-Sharif, 28, had spent months covering northern Gaza, reporting on starvation and relentless air strikes. "I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification," he wrote in a message prepared before his death.
Read moreFive Al Jazeera journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, killed in Israeli strike on Gaza
A similar tactic followed the killing of journalist Ismail al-Ghoul in July 2024, along with his cameraman. Weeks later, the army described him as a "Nukhba terrorist", a Hamas special forces branch, citing a 2021 document allegedly retrieved from a Hamas computer. But the same document listed him as receiving his rank in 2007 – when al-Ghoul was just ten years old.
An anonymous journalist working in Gaza told FRANCE 24 the Legitimisation Cell’s tactics are "alarming", saying they put reporters’ lives at risk by linking them to armed groups.
“We already work under constant fear – air strikes, losing colleagues, being silenced. Now the threat is also reputational, stripping us of international support and protection,” the journalist said. “It’s a systematic effort to delegitimise our voices and block the truth about Gaza from reaching the world. We are painted as targets, not professionals reporting the facts.”
In 2024, the organisation Forbidden Stories, which brings together journalists from around the world, investigated the killing of nearly a hundred Palestinian reporters by the Israeli army as part of its Gaza Project.
"The Israeli army participates in disinformation around journalists to suggest that all journalists operating in Gaza are Hamas agents," Executive Director Laurent Richard told Radio France.
"The reality is far more nuanced and complex…It usually starts with rumours and articles on sites close to the Israeli government, claiming a particular journalist is in fact a terrorist. Then, weeks or months later, that journalist is targeted by a drone."
'The worst conflict for reporters'
On Monday, Israel struck southern Gaza’s main hospital twice, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists, according to medical officials. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the strikes as part of Israel’s "progressive elimination of information in Gaza" and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
Multiple journalists killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza hospital © France 24
02:14
02:14
"How far will the Israeli armed forces go in their efforts to gradually eliminate information in Gaza? How long will they continue to defy international humanitarian law?" said RSF Director Thibaut Bruttin.
Media watchdogs estimate that around 200 journalists have been killed in nearly two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas, making Gaza the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history. In April, Brown University’s Watson Institute described it as "quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters".
Media watchdogs estimate that around 200 journalists have been killed in nearly two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas, making Gaza the deadliest conflict for journalists in modern history. In April, Brown University’s Watson Institute described it as "quite simply, the worst ever conflict for reporters".
In this family handout photo, Riyad Dagga, center, and other relatives pray over the body of his daughter, freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, during her funeral after she was killed in a double Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on August 25, 2025. AP
"Israel kills Palestinian journalists as if they were flies," Bregman said. "The Israeli method is simple: they allow into the Gaza Strip journalists and influencers they believe will support the Israeli narrative, and silence – often with bullets – those who contradict the Israeli narrative."
"Israel kills Palestinian journalists as if they were flies," Bregman said. "The Israeli method is simple: they allow into the Gaza Strip journalists and influencers they believe will support the Israeli narrative, and silence – often with bullets – those who contradict the Israeli narrative."
Controlling the story
Aside from the case of al-Sharif, Israel maintains that its operations do not intentionally target journalists, asserting that air strikes are aimed solely at militants and military infrastructure. The IDF did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the existence or activities of the Legitimisation Cell.
Following the latest hospital strike, the army’s chief of staff ordered a preliminary inquiry, stressing that the IDF "does not in any way target journalists as such".
Read more'Death follows us everywhere': Israel pounds Gaza City as it vows to press on with offensive
But press freedom groups say the pattern is clear: reporters smeared as militants, then killed in strikes justified by those same allegations. For Bregman, the logic is about information control, not battlefield necessity.
"This is all about Hasbara and controlling the narrative Israel wants the world to believe in. It has nothing to do with security and military operations," he said.
Israel extends its control over the Gaza narrative beyond the conflict zone, strictly regulating foreign reporting by allowing access only to journalists embedded with its forces
"This is one of the rare times in modern history when a conflict of this scale cannot be covered by journalists who wish to report from the ground," Richard said. "When a country refuses access to foreign journalists in a war zone, it poses a major democratic problem regarding access to information."
The Legitimisation Cell is more than a PR tool. It embodies the militarisation of information, where every word, image, or report is scrutinised as a potential threat. In this framework, journalists are not just messengers but become targets themselves.
"Being a journalist doesn't mean being a target, but unfortunately the Israeli army tries to label us as such, traumatizing both the public and reporters themselves,” the anonymous reporter said.
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