An investigation by CNN into Israel’s strike on the Nasser Hospital this week – an attack that killed more than 20 people, including emergency workers and five journalists – is a case study in how even well-intentioned journalism, ostensibly examining Israeli crimes, ends up concealing more than it reveals.

CNN’s detailed examination of footage of Monday’s strike on the hospital in Khan Younis found that Israel’s so-called “double-tap” actually involved three missiles.

The first strike hit a fourth-floor stairwell close to a hospital upper balcony. Then, 10 minutes later, as emergency crews and journalists scrambled to help the victims, a second and third strike hit precisely the same spot.

A munitions expert who examined the footage notes that the second and third missiles were almost certainly fired from two different tanks in very close succession.

As he and CNN conclude, that removes any last trace of doubt on whether the attack on the hospital was, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims, “a tragic mishap”. Rather, it was a highly coordinated precision strike.

CNN reiterates a further and important contextual point that should obliterate Israel’s subsequent justification for its attack, following what Israel terms an “initial investigation”.

Let us note in passing that the Israeli military is pretending to investigate itself only to dampen the rare furore that has erupted over the strike, chiefly because the new atrocity was caught on camera and killed journalists working for major western news organisations. Israel has abandoned almost all of its previous investigations as soon as the western media could be provided with a fresher atrocity to report on. And Israel seems to have an endless production line of atrocities with which to distract them.

All too predictably, Israel’s “initial investigation” found a “Hamas” excuse.

According to the Israeli military, it hit Nasser Hospital’s stairwell because it had identified a camera there supposedly being used by Hamas.

No ‘mishap’

Even if we take this claim seriously – which, outrageously, is exactly what the western media are doing – it falls apart on even the most cursory inspection.

Not least, the Israeli military was fully aware that this was a favoured spot for Gaza’s journalists, a place where they often congregated.

The high elevation and good cell signal meant that it was ideal for uploading their material and for conducting live broadcasts.

And the location at Nasser Hospital – the last (barely) functioning medical facility in southern Gaza – meant it was certain to be at the centre of the story every time Israel bombed the surrounding area, as it does relentlessly.

Nasser Hospital was the site from which emergency crews were dispatched, and it was the place where Israel’s bloodied victims were brought for treatment.

CNN’s investigation features several photographs and videos of the journalists Israel killed this week working on the balcony and stairwell in the preceding several months. The photo below, by Mohammad Salama, was taken on June 12 and includes two of the journalists Israel killed this week: Mariam Abu Daqqa and Moath Abu Taha.

All of this was known to the Israeli military. When they targeted a “Hamas camera”, they knew that, in reality, that camera was being used by a Reuters journalist, Hussam Al-Masri.

Israel’s ever-present drones, their whine constantly filling the skies over Gaza, had been watching him and other journalists on that stairwell day after day, week after week, for months on end.

And when Israel struck 10 minutes later with two coordinated missiles, it knew that the main victims would be the emergency workers who went to rescue survivors from the first strike and journalists – al-Masri’s friends – who were nearby and rushed to the scene.

Nothing was a “mishap”. It was planned down to the minutest detail.

Reuters smears itself

But here is where we get to the main problem with CNN’s coverage.

In picking apart Israel’s patently bogus claims, the investigation treats those claims with a seriousness they in no way merit. And worse, it ignores the wider context that damns Israel and makes the investigation itself – any investigation – utterly redundant in terms of determining whether a war crime was committed.

On that matter, there can be no debate. And yet, CNN’s investigation takes as its premise the idea that there are two sides to be considered and settled. That the truth has to be determined. That Israel’s case needs to be weighed.

These are the straws that western leaders, and the large contingent of genocide apologists in western professional circles, including journalists, so desperately clutch at.

Because otherwise it would be only too clear that they have been cheerleading – and assisting – a genocide for two years.

The first point is this: An investigation by Israel, or anyone else for that matter, is not needed to establish whether the targeted camera belonged to Hamas. It didn’t because it belonged to Reuters news agency.

The extraordinary contortions made by Reuters to avoid pointing this simple fact out are illustrative of the way media outlets are willing to construct narratives that actually undermine the very thing they are supposed to be engaged in: truth-telling journalism.

Reuters knows the camera position on the stairwell was not being used by Hamas because Reuters was using it for their live feeds. Images of the wrecked camera even show it wired up for broadcast at the time it was hit.

And yet like the rest of the media, Reuters is required to play dumb: it reports Israel’s outright lie that it targeted a “Hamas camera” – and six terrorists alongside it – as if that might be true.

Reuters headline on the story – the only part that most people read – runs: Initial inquiry says Hamas camera was target of Israeli strike that killed journalists.Email