US Mercenaries at GHF Aid Site Pursued Journalist Mohamed Salama Before Israeli Strike Killed Him and Four Colleagues
Gaza (Quds News Network)- US mercenaries at an aid site run by the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) interrogated a source connected to Palestinian journalist Mohamed Salama, pressing for information about his identity and location, just days before Israeli strikes killed Salama and four of his colleagues, Middle East Eye (MEE) has revealed.
On Monday, five journalists, including Salama, were killed in two Israeli attacks on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. The two strikes killed 22 Palestinians, including medics and rescue workers.
Days before, a source for one of Salama’s major investigations for MEE told him that they had been briefly detained at an aid distribution site by US security contractors guarding the site.
There, the source said, they had been interrogated about the identity of the reporter behind the story. Salama worked on the story anonymously for security reasons.
“The source would not have been in contact with me unless they thought something was deeply wrong,” Salama told colleagues at the time.
When asked if he felt safe knowing he was being pursued for his work, Salama replied: “We journalists are never safe in Gaza.”
Middle East Eye asked Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, the two US security firms working at the aid distribution sites, whether they were involved in the source’s interrogation.
MEE also asked if their employees were passing intelligence to Israel on the identity of Palestinian journalists such as Salama. They had not replied.
MEE asked the GHF and Israeli military for comment. The GHF called the allegation that the source was interrogated at one of its sites “absurd and completely false”.
Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began 22 months ago, Salama has contributed video and written reports for MEE and Al Jazeera that have attracted international attention.
When the BBC pulled a documentary profiling a Palestinian boy in response to an intense pro-Israel campaign earlier this year, Salama interviewed the 13-year-old who had found himself at the centre of a British media storm as well as a war.
In March, he also reported on a mass grave containing the bodies of 15 medics, who had been bound and then shot in the chest, back and head. Salama was one of the very first to publish details about the apparent Israeli massacre and speak to the victims’ relatives, MEE said.
Earlier this month, Salama identified a frail 10-year-old boy who a whistleblower said had been gunned down while trying to receive food at an GHF aid site. He discovered that Abdulrahim “Amir” al-Jarabe’a’s family had not been told he had been killed or received his body.
On Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the Israeli forces first hit the hospital’s fourth floor. Minutes later, it struck medical teams who rushed to help the wounded and journalists who went to cover the attack. Nasser Hospital is the only functioning medical center in southern Gaza. Hospital officials said dozens were also injured.
Among the victims were five journalists:
- Hussam Al-Masri, Reuters photojournalist
- Mohamed Salama, Al Jazeera photojournalist
- Mariam Abu Daqqa, journalist with Independent Arabia and AP
- Moath Abu Taha, journalist with NBC News
- Ahmed Abu Aziz, journalist with Quds Feed
- Other victims included Mohammad Al-Habibi, a sixth-year medical student, and Imad Al-Shaer, a civil defense firefighter and father of three.
A CNN investigation found that the second attack was actually two back-to-back strikes.
The Israeli attack on the hospital came just after 10 a.m. local time on Monday when a balcony at the Nasser Hospital was hit by what appears to be a tank shell, killing Al-Masri and others.
Nine minutes later, as a group of rescue workers and other journalists came to the scene, they were hit as the Israeli military fired again on the hospital at 10:17 a.m. local time, a tactic known as a “double tap.”
New video obtained by CNN showed that this second “tap” was in fact two near-simultaneous strikes. These second and third strikes appear to have caused most of the deaths.
A frame-by-frame analysis of another video obtained by CNN of the same moment makes it clear that two more munitions were fired at the hospital. One shell hits the staircase where first responders had gathered; a fraction of a second later, another explodes at almost the same spot.
Israeli soldiers claimed that there was a camera that was used by Hamas to monitor military movements. They fired a second shell to “confirm the hit.” That strike landed on rescue teams and doctors treating the injured.
The Israeli army said the Chief of Staff ordered a preliminary investigation, claiming that the army “does not target journalists”.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military claimed that its “initial investigation” into its own attack on the southern Gaza hospital showed that the target was a camera positioned in the area and used by Hamas to monitor Israeli troop movements.
“In light of this, the force acted to destroy the camera,” the Israeli army said.
The Israeli military also claimed that it targeted and killed six fighters in the attack.In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas challenged the Israeli government’s account that claimed to name six fighters killed in the attack.
Hamas said that at least two of the six Palestinians named by the Israeli military were not killed in the shocking double strike on the hospital, but at other times and locations, including one who was killed in al-Mawasi, some distance from the hospital in Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Government Media Office also refuted the claims.
The Office noted that the moment of the initial Israeli strike, a Reuters news agency live video feed, which cameraman Hussam al-Masri had been operating, suddenly shut down. Al-Masri was killed in the attack.
It referred to the second attack, calling it a “double-tap strike”, two strikes on the same target. The first strike is intended to kill an individual or individuals, the second to kill any rescue workers who come to help. The Office added the strike breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the targeting of medics, anyone assisting in rescue efforts or those wounded in the first strike.
In fact, Monday’s strikes targeted a hospital full of medical staff, rescuers and journalists. All of them are protected under international law.
The Office also said Israel targeted and killed in the attack well-known journalists who were working with international agencies and they were not wanted.
