Strike that killed journalists ‘tragic mishap’ says Netanyahu’s office published at 20:22.
We’ve just got this new comment from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the statement on X, it says that “Israel deeply regrets the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza”
“Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians” it continues.
Military authorities are conducting a “thorough investigation”.
The PM’s office finishes by saying that “our war is with Hamas terrorists. Our just goals are defeating Hamas and bringing our hostages home”.
Almost 200 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists – and the vast majority of them were Palestinian.
It’s now the world’s deadliest conflict for reporters, a mirror of the vast human toll this conflict has taken on the population there.
The so-called “double-tap” bombing tactic used by Israel is often fatal for journalists – who rush to the scene of the first strike, only to be hit by a later one.
But Israel has also routinely targeted journalists it accuses of working for Hamas, sometimes killing many of their media colleagues alongside them.
As civilians, journalists covering conflicts are protected under International law, unless they take an active part in the fighting.
Simply disseminating propaganda for the enemy doesn’t count. Some of the world’s leading press freedom groups have accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists, which it denies.
It has blocked international journalists from reporting freely from Gaza for the entire 22 months of this war – the first time this has happened in any modern conflict.
But Israel routinely allows medics and aid workers in and out of the Gaza Strip, and has provided no convincing explanation for why international journalists remain banned.